Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has embroiled himself in a race row after he used PMQs to accuse Rishi Sunak of failing to ‘get’ Britain.
Sir Keir accused the PM of standing in the Commons every week to tell the country “they should be thanking him, not questioning him”.
“Point out that the view on the ground is very different to that from his private jet, and he says ‘You’re talking the country down’.
“He just doesn’t get it… Doesn’t the country deserve so much better than a Prime Minister who simply doesn’t get Britain?”
Following Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Sunak’s Spokesman retorted: “The Prime Minister is as British as Starmer”.
The slapdown has now sparked allegations that Sir Keir’s comment was “dog whistle” racism directed at Britain’s first PM of Asian heritage.
Responding to the attack, British-Iraqi MP Nadhim Zahawi told the Express: “I flinched when I heard the leader of His Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition trot out the sort of line that I’ve had to deal with all my life.
“Not only is the Prime Minister as British as anyone else, those of us who come from immigrant families or who came here and made the UK our homes know exactly what makes Britain Great.
“And sadly it’s many of the things that Sir Keir seems to so dislike about our wonderful country.
“I thought Labour had moved on from the dark days of Jeremy Corbyn, especially when he said that Jews were incapable of understanding English humour, but it seems to be the same old Labour Party underneath the surface.”
One Twitter/X user responded to the attack from Sir Keir: “A white man telling a British Asian that he ‘doesn’t get Britain’.
“There’s a word for that.”
One journalist at the Politico website said the Labour leader’s line sounded “a bit like he’s suggesting Sunak isn’t British”.
Sir Keir’s spokesman defended the comment, arguing it was about Mr Sunak’s claims that the country is brilliant and doesn’t understand how tough life is for families across the UK.
