Sir Keir Starmer should have labelled the recent riots in England “racist” earlier than he did, Thangam Debbonaire has said.
The former Bristol Central MP said she was “distraught” to see the riots unfold across the UK at the start of this month.
Ms Debbonaire, who was shadow culture secretary in Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet before the election was called, said as a “mixed race woman” she wanted people to “name these riots as race riots”.
Speaking on Beth Rigby’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Ms Debbonaire said: “It felt like a different time had come back, and I wanted people to name these riots as race riots. They weren’t anti-immigration riots. They were racist riots by racists.”
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Far-right violence broke out in towns and cities across the UK in the wake of a stabbing attack that left three girls dead in Southport on Monday 29 July.
False rumours were circulated online claiming the suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat.
As the riots gained pace, Sir Keir labelled them “far right” while denouncing the “gang of thugs” who were taking part in the disorder.
In a TV address he said: “People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques… Other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.”
Ms Debbonaire, who lost her seat to the Green Party after representing it in parliament since 2015, said while she understood why politicians had chosen to brand those involved as “thugs”, she did not agree with the label because it let people “off the hook”.
“One of the things that was troubling was the the label,” she said.
“I understand why it was chosen to call them mindless thugs, but I don’t think it’s helpful because it wasn’t mindless. People make choices.
“For me, I’m afraid to say – and I say this with respect to my colleagues who are using that language, I get where they are – but it lets them off the hook.”
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How a week of unrest unfolded
Put to her that this was the language used by the prime minister, Ms Debbonaire replied: “And I disagree with it. I understand why he used it.
“I think taking a law and order approach was right. I think he’s absolutely right. But I think two things can be true at the same time: take a law and order approach, but also name racism as racism because otherwise we’re treating a whole bundle of people who are not racist, but who do want to discuss migration in the same boat.”
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Describing the impact the riots had on her personally, Ms Debbonaire said that although she was in India at the time she still felt “scared”.
“I was so relieved to be in India and amongst brown people, and I was texting a lot of friends and the pain and fear of just seeing a group of angry white men very obviously targeting brown people because they are brown,” she said.
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“It is visceral… It’s also visceral how it makes you feel when white allies of yours you feel haven’t quite got it yet.”
She added: “I can’t get up in the morning and cry because there are racists, but seeing that was scary.
“And yes, I wanted him [Sir Keir] to say earlier, I really did.
“I wanted my prime minister to recognise what it was doing to us brown people who are patriots and who believe in law and order and believe in this country.”
To date, more than 1,000 arrests have been made in connection with the unrest, according to The National Police Chiefs’ Council. A total of 372 adults have been charged.