UK PM Keir Starmer urges European allies to meet far-right ‘challenge’
“There are a number of reasons for my concern – partly what’s happening in the UK, partly what you can see happening in other European countries, including in France and in Germany.”
UK Labour Party leader Starmer swept to power in a landslide general election win against the Conservatives early last month, in a rare recent triumph for a European centre-left party.
The poll, however, also saw the anti-immigration Reform UK party capture 14 per cent of the vote – one of the largest shares for a hard-right British party in UK electoral history.
“I think that the challenge has to be met by democracy and by progressives, and we have to have a joint discussion about what that means across Europe and beyond, which I’m very keen to pursue with progressive parties,” Starmer added.
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‘Full audit’ of Sino-UK ties as new Labour Party government looks for reset in bilateral relations
Anti-Muslim riots broke out across English cities earlier this month with rioters shouting anti-immigrant slogans and chants like “Stop the Boats” – a reference to asylum seekers crossing the Channel from France.
Officials blamed disinformation and far-right figures, including Reform UK leader and arch-Eurosceptic Nigel Farage, for helping to stir up the disorder, which targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers as well as police officers and other properties.
Starmer said he believed that “delivery and honesty is the best way of dealing with the snake oil of populism and nationalism”.
But he tried to strike a more positive tone in Berlin, insisting that even though things will get worse first, the country will be in a better position by the end of the current parliament in five years.
“This is actually a project of hope, but it’s got to start with the hard yards of doing the difficult stuff, of clearing out the rot, first,” Starmer insisted.