- Tory MPs said it was Labour that was waging a ‘culture war’ on British traditions
Keir Starmer was accused of ‘relentlessly politicising’ British life yesterday, as he pledged to defend organisations that go woke.
The Labour leader said the Government was engaging in a ‘kind of weird McCarthyism’ by trying to root out ‘woke agendas’ at major institutions.
Sir Keir claimed it was now Labour that was on the side of groups such as the National Trust, which has been criticised by some Conservatives for re-writing history and playing up links between Sir Winston Churchill’s former home and the slave trade.
But Tory MPs yesterday said it was Labour that was waging a ‘culture war’ on British traditions. And hours later, a member of Sir Keir’s Shadow Cabinet appeared to underline their warning when she endorsed the teaching of controversial ‘white privilege’ theories to children.
One government source described Sir Keir’s intervention as ‘absolutely absurd’, adding: ‘This is a guy who takes the knee, who can’t say what a woman is and whose frontbenchers want to import racial policies like teaching white privilege from the United States.’ Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of Conservative MPs, said Sir Keir was right to identify woke issues as a key political dividing line – but said Labour was on the wrong side of it.
He added: ‘If Keir Starmer wants to fight a culture war, I say bring it on. We are proud of Britain’s history – we are not embarrassed by Winston Churchill and Nelson.
‘On our side we know Britain abolished the slave trade, we know what a woman is and we are not going to give in to demands to teach ludicrous notions of white privilege to children.
‘We did not start this war on our history and our values but we are ready to defend those traditional values – and the truth actually.’ Former Labour MP Simon Danczuk accused Sir Keir of trying to ‘normalise the woke agenda’.
‘The truth is Keir is Captain Woke, that’s the reality of it’ he said. ‘He takes the knee for Black Lives Matter, he struggles to define a woman, he’s usually on the side of the illegal immigrant rather than the British citizen. So he’s trying to normalise this whole agenda.’
He added: ‘Trust me, as night follows day, if we have a Labour government with Keir Starmer in Downing Street, he will be promoting that sort of agenda – that is the nature of his politics, which is North London Labour elite. That’s a key part of their agenda.’
So-called critical race theory teaches that white people enjoy innate advantages in society because of the colour of their skin.
Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch has said it should not be taught in schools.
But Labour’s culture spokesman Thangam Debbonaire yesterday said encouraging pupils to be questioning ‘is a good idea’.
Asked whether Labour supports organisations which encourage children to learn about white privilege, she told BBC Radio Four’s World at One show: ‘We need education that allows children the opportunity to question, to ask difficult questions sometimes of our nation’s history.
‘That’s a strong country that’s able to look at itself and its history and say, ‘Are there things we could have done differently? Are there things we regret? Are there even things that we’re sorry about? But also are there things we can learn so that we make a stronger, better country for the future?’
Ms Debbonaire said ‘questioning our symbols’ and thinking about what they mean ‘doesn’t mean that you’re undermining them, it means that you’re looking at them and thinking how can I appreciate these symbols and what their meaning is?’
Sir Keir yesterday promised a ‘reset’ on relations with the charity sector, and suggested that Labour would not stand in the way of organisations that want to go woke.
He claimed the Government had become ‘tangled up in culture wars of their own making’ during clashes with organisations such as the National Trust and RNLI. He added at the Civil Society Summit in London: ‘Instead of working with the National Trust so more people can learn about – and celebrate – our culture and our history, they’ve managed to demean their work.
‘In its desperation to cling on to power at all costs, the Tory party is undertaking a kind of weird McCarthyism, trying to find woke agendas in the very civic institutions they once regarded with respect… waging a war on the proud spirit of service in this country isn’t leadership. It is desperate, it is divisive, it is damaging.’
Rishi Sunak said the comments were ‘a distraction from the fact that Keir Starmer, who has been Leader of the Opposition for four years, can’t actually say what he would do differently to run this country’.
Tory MP Bob Seely accused Labour of ‘relentlessly politicising a lot of areas of our life’. Mr Seely said Sir Keir’s speech ‘reminds me [of] that old KGB tactic to accuse your opponents of the thing that you’re doing yourselves’.
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Jason Grove
