It is right to call Reform's policy racist, but Labour needs to go further

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage calls for mass expulsions. He hopes to deport 600,000 migrants over five years if he wins the next election.

He wants us to blame migrants and refugees for the problems in Britain while it protects those who are really responsible.

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The racist riots of the summer of 2024 and this year’s attacks on refugees housed in former hotels flow from the blame-game that Farage peddles.

His attitudes now build on years of bigotry.

We believe Reform is riddled with racism In 2014 he said that “parts of Britain are now unrecognisable and look like a foreign land” because of migration. Farage also said in 2014, “Any normal person would have a perfect right to be concerned if a group of Romanian people suddenly moved in next door.”

During the 2024 general election, Farage suggested Muslims in Britain “do not subscribe to British values”.

Reform UK winning five MPs at the general election came just before the far-right riots and the fierce attacks on mosques and hotels where refugees were housed.

We’re glad Keir Starmer has taken on Reform UK, but shamefully, Labour accepts some of the same agenda.

Keir Starmer calls to go “further and faster” on cutting migration and boasts.

“When I say I will stop at nothing to secure our borders, I mean it.” This follows his “island of strangers” speech which echoed Tory racist Enoch Powell from the 1960s.

Today, the home secretary was set to reveal attacks on migrants’ indefinite leave to remain, including higher English language requirements, as well as paying into national insurance, a "spotless" criminal record and having a job.

Labour is already consulting on whether to change the five-year period before ILR claims can be submitted to ten years.

We need a war on Reform UK’s racism, but also the racism throughout the system.

SUTR is proud to oppose Reform UK, as well as take on violent racists. We say refugees are not to blame for the problems ordinary people face.

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Samira Ali is Stand Up to Racism's national organiser

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