‘I think It’s taken too long to kick back against the racism, if you take what President Trump said for instance we should’ve come out straight away..’
Labour MP Dawn Butler has said that the Labour government must go further and faster in calling out the bigotry and racism being pushed by Reform UK, after the party continues to whip up fears against minorities.
Speaking to Left Foot Forward, Butler said that the government needed to kick back harder against the divisiveness of Nigel Farage’s party, saying it was incumbent upon all to be the firewell against Reform’s racism and ‘also incumbent on the Labour Party to call it out’.
Asked whether she agreed with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s comments that Reform’s migrant policy was ‘racist’ and ‘immoral’, Butler told LFF: “It’s quite clear that the direction Reform is taking, that they want to stoke racism and division any way that they can.
“So if they can create policies that seem racist, you know if you’re a Brown person you’re automatically illegal kind of thing, then that’s what they’re doing and it’s incumbent on us as a society to kick back against that, it’s incumbent on us as a society to be the firewell against their racism and it’s also incumbent on the Labour Party to call it out.”
Earlier today, the Prime Minister told the BBC that Reform’s policy of scrapping indefinite leave to remain is “racist” and “immoral”.
Indefinite leave to remain is the main route by which migrants are able to settle in the UK and which is open to people who have worked and lived in the UK legally for five years. Depending on visa type, the applicant may also need to meet certain salary or financial requirements.
After securing ILR, a person can generally apply for British citizenship after 12 months.
Farage claimed his policy is aimed at stopping 800,000 people from becoming eligible for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) between 2026 and 2030.
The Reform UK leader’s plans would mean that that ILR settled status would be scrapped including for those currently residing in the UK. The plans would throw the lives of the estimated 430,000 people holding ILR into uncertainty, despite many having lived in the UK for decades. Farage has used disputed figures claiming that scrapping ILR would save more than £200bn.
Asked whether she thought the government’s strategy for dealing with the rise of Reform UK was the correct one, Butler said: “I think we need to go, to coin a phrase from the leadership of the party, further and faster. I think It’s taken too long to kick back against the racism, if you take what President Trump said for instance we should’ve come out straight away and called that out, if you put friendship above what is right in society that leads to whole load of problems just take Jeffrey Epstein as an eg.
“We have to decide who we are as a British nation, who are we? What makes us British, it’s not the colour of your skin that makes you British, so what makes you British and that’s about fairness and justice.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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