LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged centre-left leaders to tackle uncontrolled migration and confront the “lies” being told by hard-right politicians.
Speaking at a global conference on Friday, Starmer addressed the rise of right-wing populism alongside leaders like Australia’s Anthony Albanese and Canada’s Mark Carney.
“I don’t accept that argument that somehow our politics is dying out,“ said Starmer, referencing his own landslide election win and recent victories for Carney and Albanese.
He added that it is now time for social democrats to confront directly some of the challenges and some of the lies that have taken root in societies.
Starmer’s Labour party has fallen behind the anti-immigrant Reform UK party in national polls since the July 2024 general election.
The British leader attempted to lay out a more optimistic vision than that presented by Reform, which is headed by Nigel Farage.
Starmer has started to accuse Farage of being unpatriotic as he tries to claw back support from the Reform party.
The UK Prime Minister told the conference that Britain’s next general election would be a “battle for the soul of the country” and a straight fight between Labour and Reform.
He described the choice as being between “a politics of predatory grievance” or one of “patriotic renewal”.
Starmer said patriotic renewal would be rooted in communities and build a better country brick by brick from the bottom up.
He also referenced the recent “Unite the Kingdom” protest organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, which was addressed by Elon Musk.
“You don’t need to be a historian to know where that kind of poison can lead,“ Starmer told the Global Progressive Action Conference.
He stressed that London is not “the wasteland of anarchy” that some on the right, particularly in the United States, portray it as.
Starmer confirmed his government intends to introduce mandatory digital ID cards by 2029 for anyone who wants to work in the UK.
“It is not compassionate left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages,“ he said, adding that every nation needs control over its borders. – AFP
