Exclusive: Health secretary says Labour cannot afford to ignore far-right protests as Starmer under growing pressure
Wes Streeting has called it “laughable” that rising racism and homophobia is a sign of free speech in a strongly worded intervention suggesting Labour needed to step up its defence of minorities.
The health secretary told the LGBT foundation on Monday he wanted to address “the elephant in the room” and said he understood why some were questioning “whether this government is really on our side”.
He said the scenes of far-right protests over the weekend were “not the kind of country any of us want to live in”.
He told an audience of healthcare workers: “Black and Asian members of our community have the added fear of an undercurrent, increasingly visible tide of racism in our country that cloaks itself in our country’s flag and laughably claims to be a champion of ‘free speech’.
