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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer © IMAGO/Avalon.red
The British Prime Minister must stop racist violence. However, the Tory governments’ failures make this difficult. The editorial.
Keir Starmer certainly imagined the end of his first month in office as British Prime Minister to be different. The Social Democrat won the general election at the beginning of July by a clear margin, repeatedly stressed the need to move away from the policies of the run-down Tory government, and cut a good figure on the international stage. Now he is faced with the first serious crisis of his term in office.
In addition to the ailing health system and the lack of affordable housing, immigration is a concern for the British people – that much was already clear before the election. But the fact that this difficult, emotionally charged issue is now being brought to the fore through a terrible crime and the riots that responded to it, so to speak, through the back door, presents the head of government with additional problems.
Southport shooting: Starmer threatens with “full force of the law”
Starmer has rightly stated that the Southport shooting, which left three children dead and ten others, some seriously injured, cannot justify throwing a stone at police officers or setting fire to asylum accommodation. He is supporting the police and threatening criminals with “the full force of the law”.
The violent rioters should brace themselves, because the man is credible. During Starmer’s term as head of the English public prosecution service, there were serious riots in the inner cities of Great Britain in August 2011 after the London police shot dead a drug dealer. Within five days, 3,000 criminals were sentenced to harsh sentences by fast-track courts that met around the clock. The rule of law is likely to deal with the criminals on site in a similar way this time too.
But Starmer has three other important tasks ahead of him. Firstly, the Prime Minister must put his threat to tackle hate speech and incitement on the internet into action. This is difficult because there is no legal framework to do so – one of the many serious failings of his conservative predecessors. Unlike in the EU, platforms such as X, Facebook or Telegram allow hate preachers and fraudsters to speak unhindered; yes, they have an interest in doing so because it generates revenue. X-owner Elon Musk has no shame in babbling about an impending “civil war” on the island and sharing messages from the convicted right-wing extremist agitator Tommy Robinson millions of times. Starmer must quickly put a legal stop to such irresponsible behavior.
Starmer faces a difficult task: an open discussion is needed in the UK
Secondly, the security forces must carefully examine how far the far-right scene has progressed in its networking. London should share its findings with its counterparts on the continent so that they can prepare for events like those on the island.
Thirdly, politically, Starmer must stick to his line of not making promises he cannot keep. The far-right and national populists like Nigel Farage find resonance among the population when they campaign against uncontrolled immigration. This is because the defeated Tory government stoked hysteria about migrants for years. But it is also because prime ministers from David Cameron to Rishi Sunak have made unfulfillable promises.
Back in 2010, Cameron promised to reduce “net immigration”: the difference between immigrants and emigrants should be less than 100,000 people per year. Apart from the fact that the government has no influence on how many people leave the country permanently, “net immigration” was several hundred thousand in every year of the Conservative government. The majority of Britons also voted for Brexit because fear of further immigration was massively and falsely stoked. The supposed “reclaiming of our borders” led to the opposite: even more people are coming to the country than before; last year, “net immigration” was 685,000 people.
Starmer must discuss the difficult issue openly and repair the asylum system, which the Tories have left in a disastrous state. In the House of Commons he will have to deal with Farage, who is acting in his usual perfidious manner, asking supposedly “legitimate” questions and thereby inflaming the situation. The social democrat cannot hope for support from the completely disorientated Conservatives either. The Prime Minister has difficult months ahead of him. (Sebastian Berger)
