Senior Labour MPs and the UK’s largest anti-fascist campaign group have called on Keir Starmer to mount a more heartfelt defence of diversity and anti-racism. They say they fear that Labour is not yet putting its “heart and soul” into the battle against Nigel Farage and the far right.
Hope Not Hate’s chief executive has written a letter to Starmer in the lead up to a planned far-right demonstration in London on Saturday, demanding the prime minister speak up more against hate and racism.
In the letter, Nick Lowles said: “Hate breeds when those in power are silent. I implore you and other ministers to speak out urgently in defence of our migrant communities and our multicultural society more generally. It is imperative we all push back against the onslaught of racism we currently face because silence will only encourage our opponents more.”
The challenge to No 10 speaks to many MPs’ fear that the party vacated the political playing field over the summer months as Farage, asylum hotel protests and rows over flags dominated. Several said they hoped that it would be a key theme of the Labour deputy leadership race between Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell on how the party could better defend its core values.
MPs who have called for greater clarity in the fight against rightwing hatred include those who had stood for deputy leader as well as a number of candidates who had been urged to stand for the position.
The former cabinet minister Louise Haigh said: “In recent months we’ve seen the far right allowed to set the terms of debate on migrants and minority communities, with too little challenge from those in power. That failure has whipped up tensions in communities right across the UK and risks embedding further division.
“What’s crucial now is that we stand firm on our values – that means challenging the demonisation of migrants, exposing the hypocrisy of figures like Nigel Farage, and making the positive case for a politics that genuinely delivers change.”
The communities minister, Alison McGovern, who dropped out of the race for deputy leader, said earlier this week she wanted Labour to make a far more emotional argument and that the progressive cause was “at risk of being lost” unless it could tell that story.
“Now is the time for progressives to realise that it’s the Labour party that has this unique place in British society, bringing people together from different backgrounds on the things that they have in common, and showing that if we fight together, we can win.”
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who had been the Labour left’s candidate for deputy leader, said the party had a unique responsibility to halt a march towards the hard right.
“Only the Labour party can stop this from happening,” the MP said. “That is an immense amount of pressure on us, but it’s also a huge opportunity, and we only meet that challenge if we do it in the way we know best, and that’s by not trying to ou- reform Reform and by being Labour.”
Stella Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow, said: “The history of this nation has been shaped by immigration and the future of it will be too – whether the skills it brings, the ideas we learn from, or even the taxes those who come here pay.
“Telling the story of who we are and who we can be and how that is strengthened by diversity, rather than threatened by it, is not something any of us can sit out and is a leadership role for all of us, including the government.”
Sarah Owen, the chair of the women and equalities committee, who had been the favourite of some MPs to run for deputy, said the party had to meet the challenge of other parties fuelling division.
“Community cohesion has never been more important, and the risks of getting it wrong have never been more dangerous … Othering and demonising communities will not make anyone better off, except the people peddling easy answers to the country’s problems.”
Polly Billington, the MP for East Thanet and a key supporter of Powell’s for the deputy leadership, said: “The vast majority of people know that Britain is made stronger by our diversity, tolerance, and respect – core Labour values that we should always defend. The far right despise modern Britain and everything it stands for, and it is essential that as a party we stand up to their poisonous agenda.”
Among MPs and also within government, there is a growing feeling that Starmer himself is not doing enough to take the fight to Reform and the far right, and has been conceding too much ground in the language of understanding concerns about migration.
A senior Labour source said: “It’s not just about narrative. It’s what is our purpose and how do we use power? The stakes are a shift to a radical right authoritarian government; as progressives, that’s an emergency.”
Lowles said he had written to the prime minister to urge him to publish a new community cohesion strategy. “A year after racist rioting swept the nation, hostility and division are still growing,” he said. “From protests at asylum centres to rows over flags and growing anti-migrant demonstrations, our communities remain under pressure.
“Known far-right groups have used local issues to stage protests outside hotels housing people seeking asylum. At the same time, the so-called flag campaign has emerged, led by people with a long history of far-right activism. A small minority is driving this division, but they do not represent the UK.”
