Sir Keir Starmer is accused of adopting anti-migrant rhetoric

A former member of the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) accused Sir Keir Starmer's government of “embracing” anti-immigration rhetoric.

Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Sunday, Mish Rahman said the government had “poured its own fuel on the fire” to fuel Islamophobia and racism in Britain, adding that the far-right riots that rocked England and Northern Ireland in August were “inevitable in this climate”.

At the same event, Diane Abbott warned that a renewed “austerity course” would lead to a rise in racism, with ethnic minorities “bearing the brunt of the government's attacks”.

Mr Rahman – who was a member of the NEC from 2020 to 2024 – attacked Sir Keir over his meeting with right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni earlier this month.

This comes after more than 24,000 migrants had already crossed the English Channel towards Britain since the beginning of the year, with 707 people having already made the crossing on Saturday.

According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, about eleven boats were intercepted on the busiest day of the week.

That brings the total for this year so far to 24,335. That's one percent more than the number of people who made the crossing by this time last year, but 20 percent less than in 2022.

Mr Rahman said: “We have also seen Rishi Sunak courting his best friend, Italy's far-right fascist leader Giorgia Meloni. This is the same Meloni who warned that Italians were victims of ethnic displacement by waves of migrants, branding them criminals and rapists.

“We got rid of the Tories, so things will change, you will say now. But last week, or the week before, Keir Starmer met the same far-right fascist Meloni, and Keir Starmer was keen to hear from Meloni how her far-right government had handled migration so well.”

He continued: “Having abolished the unworkable Rwanda programme, which he believes is not only unethical but expensive and unworkable, he is keen to figure out how to replace the Rwanda programme with an Albania programme.”

Sir Keir met Ms Meloni in Rome last week. The Italian Prime Minister told a press conference that the Labour leader was showing “great interest” in the Italian government's migrant deal with Albania.

Last year, Italy confirmed plans to open two migrant processing centres in Albania to process 36,000 migrants annually.

The government argues that the system is different from the conservatives' deportation plan from Rwanda, which they rejected in July.

Mr Rahman said British politics was now “rife with anti-migration, anti-asylum and Islamophobia”, and continued: “But the lessons do not seem to have been heard. In fact, Starmer's Labour appears to have embraced the current debate, doing its bit and adding fuel to the fire itself by promising its own blitz on illegal immigration.”

He added: “The unrest last summer was inevitable under these conditions.”

Meanwhile, in a statement read out at the meeting, Ms Abbott warned that the Government's claim that “things are only going to get worse” presented a “grim outlook” for ethnic minorities in the UK.

She said: “We are in a very difficult time. There is both a resurgence in terms of war and a resurgence in terms of austerity.

“Whenever one of these events happens, it is always accompanied by a rise in racism. Now that both are happening simultaneously, blacks and Asians in this country, as well as Muslims, are bearing the brunt of the government's attacks.”

The Labour Party was asked for comment.