Keir Starmer’s comments about Bangladeshis during ‘The Sun readers Question the Leaders’ event ahead of polling day were condemned by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate Momtaz Khanom, standing in Folkestone and Hythe.
During the discussion on deportations, Starmer said: “I’ll make sure that we’ve got planes going off – not to Rwanda, that’s an expensive gimmick – they will go back to the countries where people come from”. And then, in the same segment: “At the moment people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed, because they’re not being processed”.
The deputy leader of the Tower Hamlets council Labour group Sabina Akhtar resigned in protest, asking why Bangladesh was singled out by Starmer. Meanwhile, the left-wing Labour MP Apsana Begum, who survived attempts by local Starmer supporters to stop her standing for re-election in East London’s Poplar and Limehouse constituency, has called it “totally unacceptable for politicians for any party to use dog-whistle racism against Bangladeshis or any other migrant community”.
In response, Momtaz said: “I am a candidate for TUSC in Folkestone and Hythe and, as a member of the Bangladeshi community, I say to all political parties and their candidates, stop blaming migrants for the crisis in Britain – a crisis of privatisation, low pay and housing shortages, created by the ruthless profit-hungry capitalist system”.
“Hardworking Bangladeshi people who live in Britain contribute to the communities in which we live. TUSC is fighting for a mass united struggle – of all working-class people – for fully funded public services, NHS and decent jobs and housing for all. It is not exploited workers who gain from this ‘race to the bottom’, it’s the bosses!”
“We are fighting for a socialist world where wealth and resources can be harnessed to meet the needs of the majority through democratic workers’ control and planning”.
