Labour's Shift To 'Britain First’ Rhetoric Will Only Further Alienate People Of Colour
This morning, during his Labour leader speech to a near-empty room in Doncaster, Sir Keir Starmer outlined Labour’s vision going forwards with an emphasis on the importance of family, security, and patriotism.
It was an obvious attempt to distance himself and the party further from Corbyn’s internationalism and collectivism.
Later in the day, this somewhat strange emphasis on patriotism was then re-enforced by shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy.
“We stand up for Britain, we stand up for British people, we stand up for British interests and we will always put that first,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
If you didn’t know that you were listening to a Labour MP, you probably wouldn’t be blamed for thinking you were listening to the words of a right-wing nationalist group or Nigel Farage.
But no, these are the words of a party who only a few years ago mourned the death of one of their own, Jo Cox, who was murdered by an individual shouting the very words “Britain First”.
Like many, I’ve had people regularly tell me to go back to where I came from, as if my brown skin and foreign sounding name don't fit in with British values.
This kind of rhetoric conjures up many painful and traumatic memories of right-wing discrimination and violence against people of colour – all in the name of nationalism, patriotism, and “preserving British culture”.
Far-right politics and nationalist groups have been around since the 1930s, but really rose in popularity in the 1960s and 70s, with groups such as the National Front and British National Party (BNP) becoming established organisations with relatively large memberships.
And even though these specific groups have dwindled in recent years, we now have the likes of the English Defence League (EDL) gaining popularity. All were and are violently opposed to non-white immigration and multiculturalism, with the EDL taking a specific angle on the perceived “Islamification” of Britain.
Along with the rise...