• Speaking with a Bangladeshi news outlet, Starmer offends again by offering no apology for his comments, leading to further resignations in the party.
• In a typical political move, Starmer instead used the opportunity to campaign for more votes from the Bengali community, which further infuriated them.
Keir Starmer appeared on a Bangladeshi news channel to explain his racially charged comments at a right-wing Sun Election Showdown Event, were not intentional.
As previously reported on S2JNews, the comments from Starmer incorrectly charged Bangladesh with causing illegal migrant cases to increase where Bangladeshi “people aren’t being removed” after arriving into the country illegally.
Following the event there was intense backlash from the Bangladeshi community including further resignations in the Labour camp. Councillor Sabina Akthar, deputy leader of the Labour group on Tower Hamlets council in east London and Palfrey Councillor Shakila Hussain, Walsall’s first Bengali councillor both resigned within days of each other citing the pride in being Bangladeshi but more so that they also wished to call for an immediate ceasefire on Palestine, however were restricted in advocating for it whilst staying with the party.
Following these developments Starmer was quick to jump at damage control and appeared on a Bengali News Channel. In the interview, Starmer is asked ‘what he would say to the Bangladeshi Community’ following the recent comments he’d made.
“I’m very concerned about any upset I may have caused that certainly wasn’t my intention I didn’t mean to offend anyone or upset anyone…I have many many [Bangladeshi] friends that I work with.”
Naturally, we have seen many public figures getting caught out on racist behaviour, only to backtrack in subsequent media interviews or social media posts to then also routinely play the “I have friends who are …”.
Starmer went on to say something, which did not correlate with the event or the line of questioning that was posed to him.
“I was simply indicating that I think there is real scope for our two countries to work together if we're able to form a Labour government… working together in the years to come will be of great benefit to the UK, to Bangladesh, to the Bangladeshi community here in the UK and it was really for that reason that it was front of mind rather than any other reason [that I made that comment about Bangladesh at that time].”
In the interview – which was pre-recorded before the High Commission statement was released – Starmer back-tracked on Bangladesh having asylum claims.
“I wasn’t intending to single out Bangladesh I was just thinking about the sorts of countries that we were working with, in relation to asylum claims and therefore it was sort of front of mind…”
The Bangladesh High Commission then released a copy of their letter to Keir Starmer online, stating that ‘eminent leaders had been saddened’ by Starmer’s comments and that there were no outstanding Bangladesh cases of migrant ‘returns’ from the UK.
Despite the embarrassment that this has caused for Starmer, it proved worthwhile for his Zionist agenda as in the past 24 hours, he has also received the backing of the extreme right-wing Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers namely ‘The Sun’.
Starmer’s approach to disregarding the minorities of the left and centre, only to capture the right-wing voters of the Tories may pay off for the majority he is looking for once election votes are counted.
Going forward, he is unlikely to be strong enough or prepared enough as a leader for the level of engagement and the lengths that the Muslim and Non-Muslim communities will go to in overturning the Zionist rhetoric. Only time, patience and most importantly – the will of Allah can help us overcome this anti-Palestinian, pro-Israeli agenda.
