Welfare cuts have fuelled rise of far right and populism, top UN expert says

Exclusive: Poverty rapporteur says governments must rethink welfare state as essential to fabric of society

Decades of efforts by mainstream politicians to roll back welfare programmes have given rise to an extremely dangerous" discourse that has helped fuel the rise of the far right and rightwing populists in countries around the world, a top UN expert has told the Guardian.

From London to Lisbon, politicians from centre-right and centre-left parties alike had steadily eroded social programmes, fostering a sense of scarcity and creating fertile ground for the stirring up of anti-migrant sentiment, said Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.