Charlotte Emma Patterns

It's a really unfortunate coincidence for Keir Starmer this keeps happening, isn't it? In the Batley and Spen by-election, Labour officials brief that Muslim voters are disillusioned with the party because of homophobia and antisemitism. Muslim councillors resign over Gaza, his stooges boast Labour is "shaking off the fleas". White allies make antisemitic comments, no action, while Diane Abbott is publicly humiliated. Kate Osamor, one of the only other Black female MPs, is suspended because she described Israel's genocide as a "genocide". Black Labour MPs brief Channel 4 News that they're too scared to talk about anti-Black racism in Labour because the leadership might purge them. Labour hires Martin Forde QC, one of the country's most senior Black barristers, to do a report which uncovers a hierarchy of racism. They fail to adequately respond to his recommendations, then when he speaks out, send him a menacing letter ordering him to be quiet. Faiza Shaheen, a hugely talented Muslim woman of colour who became a celebrated academic, is purged as a candidate for her home constituency, publicly humiliated in the Murdoch press, with Labour citing her criticising Islamophobia in the party as one of the reasons for purging her. Apsana Begum, another Muslim Labour MP, is abandoned by the party leadership after suffering domestic violence and pursued for nakedly factional reasons. We could go on, but - for some reason?! - Keir Starmer has the worst personal ratings of any Labour leader of the opposition amongst minority Britons since those records began in 1996. He went into this election with ratings more than 50 points lower among minority Britons than Tony Blair on the eve of the other Labour landslide in 1997. And now they treat a charismatic Black candidate making waves taking on the racist Right in the UK. This record is awful. Absolutely awful. And our institutionally racist media has ignored it. Well, let's see how this all goes when they're actually in power, shall we.