Islamophobia and anti-semitism: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer can't be seen to take sides over different forms of prejudice – Scotsman comment

True leadership requires our elected representatives to set an example to the country by condemning all forms of bigotry

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, pictured at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday, should unite to condemn all forms of prejudice (Picture: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA)

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak set about each other in the usual knockabout style, with the Labour leader suggesting the Conservatives had become “the political wing of the Flat Earth Society” following Liz Truss’s delusional remarks about how her brief stint as Prime Minister was sabotaged by a supposed “deep state”.

Following a week of criticism of Tory MP Lee Anderson’s Islamophobic remarks about London mayor Sadiq Khan, Sunak pointed to the Labour candidate in today’s Rochdale by-election – disowned by the party after revelations he blamed “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters" for the suspension of a pro-Palestinian MP. “We expel anti-semites, he makes them Labour candidates," the Prime Minister declared.

This was unfair to the Labour leader who has done much to rid his party of the stain of anti-semitism that grew under Jeremy Corbyn. It stretches credibility beyond breaking point that he would actually want any candidates with such appalling views. However, it is right to take a hard line on discrimination and, when parties fail to properly vet candidates, they should be hauled over the coals.

The problem is that some politicians seem to be acting as if being tough on anti-semitism is somehow a defence against accusations of Islamophobia and vice versa. Instead of seeing these two forms of prejudice as being in opposition, our political leaders should be emphasising that they are one and the same.

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All bigiotry is a moral failing based on the same flawed way of thinking. Rather than recognising the fundamental truth that human beings are individuals, racists over-simplify the world into different groups based on ethnicity and religion, then seek to whip up hatred against an entire group, sometimes by telling lies, sometimes over the actions of a minority of its members.

First, our political leaders should set their own houses in order, as Starmer has been doing and Sunak needs to do with a greater degree of vigour. Second, they should stop playing politics with the issue. And third, they should speak with one, united voice, standing side by side to condemn all prejudice, lest misguided members of our society get the wrong idea.