Jeremy Corbyn criticises Keir Starmer at Wide Awake Festival
Jeremy Corbyn addressed a large crowd at the Wide Awake festival in London’s Brockwell Park, where he stated, “Our hope is our diversity.”
Recently, Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” if efforts to tackle migration and integration were not increased. Many were quick to draw parallels to the language used in Conservative politician Enoch Powell’s polemical speech in 1968, known as “rivers of blood,” which claimed that white British people would become “strangers in their own country” in the future.
In response, Corbyn declared to the Wide Awake crowd: “Let’s hear no more of this nonsense spoken by some about this being a country of strangers. Let’s hear no more of the repetition of what the wretched Enoch Powell said when I was a young person in the 1960s. Our community, our strength, our joy, our lives, our hope is our diversity, is our different backgrounds.”
The left-wing politician then suggested that taxes on the very rich should be increased for greater overall equality: “You can’t achieve equality and justice if you extol the virtues of billionaires and do nothing about taking money off them to pay for the decent services for the many.”
He also went on to call for an end to all British arms sales to Israel, and urged those attending the festival to join anti-war rallies.
He explained, “This country, Britain, has supplied weapons and parts for the F-35 jets that are used to bomb Gaza. So when we have the demonstrations in support of the Palestine people – please be there, raise your voice. It matters by giving inspiration to those people going through the most ghastly times of their lives.”
Later on that same stage, Irish rap trio Kneecap performed just three days after one of their members, Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence. Their set also contained pro-Palestinian messaging, which saw thousands chanting “free Palestine” at their command.
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