Rakib Ehsan claims that Keir Starmer is alienating people he views as natural Labour supporters by downplaying the overtly anti-Muslim aspect of the Southport riots.

The rioting that occurred this summer in parts of England and Northern Ireland marked a turning point in communal relations, and the consequences are now being felt.

There is reason for fear in the new British Muslim poll data released by Tell MAMA, which stands for monitoring anti-Muslim violence. Seven out of ten British Muslims polled said anti-Muslim hate had increased, and two out of three also said that there was a greater chance of danger and harm to their own religious communities. The survey was conducted two months after the far-right public unrest began after the horrifying murder of three young girls in Southport. But it's not all bad news; there are some encouraging results as well, which gives me hope. In Britain, three out of five Muslims reported feeling protected, and half of them reported feeling more comfortable discussing their faith in the wake of the riots (particularly when speaking with.

The findings show that while we are a relatively successful multi-ethnic and religiously diverse democracy, there needs to be a more robust approach when it comes to ‘managing’ this diversity – which is not necessarily easy. For the newly elected Labour government, the Southport atrocity and subsequent disorder was quite the baptism of fire – but its response to the far-right rioting was left wanting and appears to have alienated a variety of groups in modern Britain.

"For the newly elected Labour government, the Southport atrocity and subsequent disorder was quite the baptism of fire – but its response to the far-right rioting was left wanting"

The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, sought to drain the riots of their political and ideological character from the get-go – characterising them as “mindless racist thuggery”. In the aftermath of Southport, an unfounded conspiracy theory that the suspect was an illegal Middle Eastern Muslim migrant who had arrived in the UK on a small boat from France was allowed to spread like wildfire on social media platforms such as X, with little to no intervention by the relevant authorities.

Dismissing the rioting as “mindless” risks overlooking the fact that there was the deliberate targeting of Muslim communities – including mosques and businesses. This included the attack on the local mosque in Southport and the destruction of a café in south Belfast. In addition to this, in Manvers near Rotherham, a hotel accommodating asylum seekers was set ablaze and had its windows smashed in. The idea that all those involved in the riots were thoughtless racist thugs masks the reality that some have deeply ideological histories which include anti-Muslim hatred. Last week, it was revealed that a man who pleaded guilty to taking part in the disorder was previously sentenced to ten years in prison for deliberately setting fire to a mosque in Stoke-on-Trent. Back in his 2011 trial, Simon Beech – now 36 years old – said that he had been a member of both the neo-fascist British National Party (BNP) and the English Defence League (EDL).

Rebuilding after Southport

Starmer may have deliberately set out to downplay the ideological elements of the rioting because doing otherwise would leave him vulnerable to the accusation that he was justifying such violent disorder. But this strategy has meant that the Labour leader has failed to truly recognise the anti-Muslim nature of much of the rioting which unfolded in the summer – further widening the disconnect between British Muslim communities and their so-called ‘natural party’.

As the country looks to rebuild from the trauma of the Southport murders and the subsequent violent disorder, part of that must be reassuring law-abiding, hard-working, and security-oriented British Muslim families of their rightful place in modern Britain. To shore up our national ‘community of communities’, it is vital that we all learn the right lessons from what took place this summer – including the Prime Minister.