Keir Starmer is facing a major backlash after his latest racist appeal to the right wing, using people from Bangladesh as the dogwhistle – with the Labour Party now seeing politicians resign seven days before the general election.
Starmer abandoning any pretence
As the Canary’s James Wright previously reported, speaking at a Sun general election event, Starmer stepped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric – this time, with a racist dogwhistle about people from Bangladesh:
I’ll make sure we got planes going off… back to the countries where people came from. At the moment people coming from Bangladesh are not being removed.
Labour’s shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth also targeted Bangladeshi people. He said:
When they come from countries like Bangladesh or wherever, we’re going to send them back.
Now, because of this Starmer has lost deputy leader of the Labour Group on Tower Hamlets Council, Sabina Akhtar. She resigned, saying in her departing letter that:
I cannot be proud of this party any more when the leader of the party singles out my community and insults my Bangladeshi identity.
She finished by saying:
it is clear the direction it is heading is unacceptable to me and to my community
My resignation letter from the Labour Party. @LabourPandL @TH_Labour @CllrSirajIslam pic.twitter.com/KRk2orvlzS
— Cllr Sabina Akhtar (@akhtar_sabina) June 26, 2024
Labour spinning hard over Bangladesh comments
Of course, the Labour PR machine swung into action and claimed that Starmer’s comments were being manipulated as “misinformation”. As PoliticsHome reported, a Labour spokesperson said:
This clip has been edited to make it look as though Keir Starmer is suggesting repatriation of British Bangladeshis. It is misinformation.
In fact, Keir is referring to Labour’s long established policy of returning those who don’t have the legal right to be in the UK to safe countries. Bangladesh was only used as an example, as there is already a bilateral agreement between the two countries.
No-one is saying that Starmer is suggesting some Windrush-style mass deportation of British Bangladeshis – although for this Nigel Farage wannabe anything is possible.
What people are asking is why is the party singling that community out? Because it is – as Labour’s answer to Alan Partridge Jon Ashworth said the same thing on Newsnight on the same day:
"The Taliban and Afghanistan is a different set up."
Shadow Paymaster General Jonathan Ashworth declines to rule out a returns agreement with the Taliban under a Labour government, after being repeatedly asked by @vicderbyshire.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/jr6ZogEUWz
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 24, 2024
Ex-Labour and now independent candidate Faiza Shaheen gave the game away on what was going on:
This reminds me of when candidates were told to say that Starmer was answering another question when he said that Israel has the right to cut off electricity and water on LBC
I said that this was an insult to voter’s intelligence, and I was told to “curb the attitude” https://t.co/FiA6YKYTAU— Faiza Shaheen (@faizashaheen) June 26, 2024
But, there’s a broader point here – and it’s that during the collapse of late-stage Western capitalism, politicians like Starmer don’t care what comes out of their mouths, as long as they get power.
Owen Jones highlighted it in a long-ass X post. To summarise: Labour is a racist endeavour:
It’s a really unfortunate coincidence for Keir Starmer this keeps happening, isn’t it?
In the Batley and Spen by-election, Labour officials brief that Muslim voters are disillusioned with the party because of homophobia and antisemitism.
Muslim councillors resign over Gaza, his… https://t.co/A7GfmIxwSw
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) June 26, 2024
Even ITV hacks were onto him – albeit not saying it out loud:
When you look at the data of top 10 nationalities claiming asylum in the UK, Bangladesh isn’t in the top 5.
Very odd for Starmer to single out the Bangladeshis.
Top 5:
🇦🇫Afghanistan
🇮🇷Iran
🇮🇳India
🇵🇰Pakistan
🇹🇷Turkey— Shehab Khan ITV (@ShehabKhan) June 26, 2024
But why would Labour specifically attack Bangladeshi people?
Starmer: late stage capitalism’s middle manager
Could it be that in Luton’s two seats and three of Birmingham’s four – where there are the highest populations of Bangladeshi people outside of London – Labour are facing a real threat from the Workers Party so are using dogwhistle racism to try and win over right-wing voters there?
Possibly, as the Guardian reported Labour were bussing in activists here for that very reason.
Not that it really matters why Starmer said it (and Ashworth repeated it). It’s the fact they said it in the first place that’s the problem.
When everything around you is falling apart – as capitalism in the West is – the response from Starmer’s ilk is not to try and fix it. It’s to manage our demise and ensure him, his mates, and wealthy people don’t suffer to much in the process.
That involves winning power by any means possible – or in Starmer’s case, lying and crowd-pleasing whoever he needs to. If that involves being racist, transphobic, or any other kind of shitheadery then the toolmaker’s son will do it.
As the Canary’s Rachael Swindon put it recently, Starmer was:
born and raised to be a US/UK establishment-pleasing flunkey
Racism is part and parcel of that.
Featured image via the Sun – YouTube
