Keir Starmer told international delegates at a conference in London that the city is not a ‘wasteland of anarchy’ despite what some say, days after Donald Trump had another dig at the city
Keir Starmer has clapped back at Donald Trump’s criticism of London – saying comments about the capital “do not match the reality”.
Addressing international delegates at the Global Progress Action summit, he said London is not the “wasteland of anarchy” that some make it out to be. Earlier this week the unpredictable US President claimed the city had “changed” and wrongly said it would “go to sharia law”. And in the summer Reform leader Nigel Farage claimed people would not walk through the West End wearing jewellery in the evening.
Mr Starmer told international guests: “We also hear stories about our great countries, our communities, our cities that simply do not match the reality that we see around us. And it’s very good to have you here in London.
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“I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself here, in our capital city. Maybe you’ve gone out for breakfast this morning. Popped into the pub for a pint last night, maybe enjoyed the last rays of sunshine in our beautiful parks.
“And if you have done any of those things or other brilliant things in London, you may have noticed that this city isn’t the wasteland of anarchy that some would have you believe. But that in a sense captures what we’re up against, doesn’t it?
“There are versions in all of your countries, where places, institutions, communities are portrayed in a way that is a million miles from reality – a sort of industrialised infrastructure of grievance. An entire world – not just a world view – created through our devices that is miserable, joyless, and demonstrably untrue.”
It comes just days after Trump told the UN general assembly: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.”
The US President has also said that “crime in London is through the roof” during an ongoing feud with Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, who accused him of being racist, sexist and Islamophobic.
Mr Farage has also been accused of stoking fear by misrepresenting the capital city. In the summer he told a journalist who put that to him: “No, they are afraid. They are afraid. I dare you, I dare you to walk through the West End of London after 9 o’clock of an evening wearing jewellery. You wouldn’t do it. You know that I’m right. You wouldn’t do it.”
During his speach Mr Starmer criticised the “poisonous belief” that there is a “violent struggle” for the nation coming. He said the belief that there was “a coming struggle, a defining struggle, a violent struggle for the nation, for all of our nations” was “on full display” during a Tommy Robinson-organised march in London this month.
He said: “You don’t have to be a great historian to know where that kind of poison ends up, and you could just feel it in a language that is naked in its attempt to intimidate.
The PM stated it was not “careless or accidental” but part of a strategy to “draw a dividing line between elites and the people”.
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