Councillor quits Labour over Starmer Bangladesh remark

The deputy chief of the Labour group on Tower Hamlets council in east London has resigned from the get together after Sir Keir Starmer made reference to Bangladesh when answering a query concerning the deportation of unlawful migrants.

In a press release posted on X, Councillor Sabina Akhtar mentioned: “I can’t be happy with the get together any extra when the chief of the get together singles out my neighborhood and insults my Bangladeshi identification.”

Answering questions from an audience of Sun readers on Monday, the Labour chief mentioned: “In the intervening time folks coming from international locations like Bangladesh usually are not being eliminated.”

Sir Keir had been requested what Labour was going to do to deport individuals who arrived within the UK illegally.

Throughout a go to to Burton-on-Trent on Thursday, the Labour chief mentioned he “definitely wasn’t aspiring to trigger any concern or offence” to British Bangladeshis who had been “making such an unlimited contribution to our nation”.

All he had been saying, Sir Keir added, was that so far as asylum seeker returns had been involved, Bangladesh was a secure nation and one which had a returns settlement with the UK.

In a video clip circulating on social media, which the BBC has seen, his feedback in Monday’s Q&A session have been edited and brought out of context.

Labour has described this clip as “misinformation”.

However a celebration candidate within the common election – in Bethnal Green and Stepney, which is in Tower Hamlets – mentioned there had been concern.

Rushanara Ali, the primary British Bangladeshi to be elected to the Commons and MP for Bethnal Inexperienced and Bow till Parliament was dissolved final month, said: “There was appreciable concern and upset following the discharge of a clip of the Labour Occasion Chief.”

She added that she had been “in shut contact along with his [Sir Keir’s] group to relay the issues in our neighborhood”.

She would “at all times work onerous to make sure the pursuits and issues of the British Bangladeshi neighborhood are on the coronary heart of coverage in a future Labour authorities”, she added.

Throughout the Solar occasion, the Labour chief mentioned the variety of folks returned to the place they got here from had fallen by 44% below the Conservative authorities.

He pledged to “put the workers again within the returns unit” in “the primary few days” of a Labour authorities.

“I’ll make it possible for we’ve acquired planes going off – to not Rwanda, that’s an costly gimmick – they may return to the international locations the place folks come from. That’s what used to occur,” he added.

Pressed by the occasion host, Solar political editor Harry Cole, on which international locations he’s speaking about, Sir Keir responded: “In the intervening time folks coming from international locations like Bangladesh usually are not being eliminated, as a result of they’re not being processed.”

In Might, the government signed an agreement with Bangladesh “to hurry up the removing of migrants with no proper to be within the nation”.

In 2023, based on House Workplace statistics, 12 failed asylum seekers had been deported to Bangladesh, whereas 66 went again voluntarily.

In a video posted on X, Apsana Begum, Labour’s candidate in Tower Hamlets’ different parliamentary constituency, Poplar and Limehouse, mentioned: “I’ll by no means ever stand by and let migrant communities be scapegoated.

“It’s completely unacceptable for politicians, for any get together, to make use of canine whistle racism in opposition to Bangladeshis or another migrant neighborhood.”

In keeping with the 2021 census, greater than a 3rd of Tower Hamlets’ inhabitants had been of Bangladeshi ethnicity.

A Labour Occasion spokesperson mentioned Sir Keir had “proudly supported the Bangladeshi neighborhood throughout the UK, who make an unlimited contribution to our nation.

“This clip has been edited to make it look as if Keir Starmer is suggesting repatriation of British Bangladeshis. It’s misinformation.

“In actual fact, Keir is referring to Labour’s long-established coverage of returning those that do not have the authorized proper to be within the UK to secure international locations.

“Bangladesh was solely used for instance, as there’s already a bilateral settlement between the 2 international locations.”