The Labour faction influencing Downing Street’s pitch to Reform UK voters has urged ministers to “root out DEI”.
An article from the Blue Labour campaign group, titled What is to be Done, calls for the government to legislate against diversity, equity and inclusion, echoing the rightwing backlash from Donald Trump and Nigel Farage.
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Urging the party to renew its “covenant with the British people”, Blue Labour’s article said: “We are proud of our multiracial democracy and we utterly reject divisive identity politics, which undermines the bonds of solidarity between those of different sexes, races and nationalities.“We should legislate to root out DEI in hiring practices, sentencing decisions and wherever else we find it in our public bodies.”
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Blue Labour calls for lower migration in the same article in which it takes aim at DEI, saying: “Immigration is not a distraction or a culture war issue; it is the most fundamental of political questions, a cause of social fragmentation, and the basis of our broken political economy.“We should drastically reduce immigration, reducing low-skill immigration by significantly raising salary thresholds; closing the corrupt student visa mill system; and ending the exploitation of the asylum system, if necessary prioritising domestic democratic politics over the rule of international lawyers.”
In May, it emerged that net migration almost halved in 2024.
We don’t really know their intentions in that space, which is a problem in itself. The change in guidelines was caused by a Supreme Court ruling on a point of law, which is politically independent.
Given that Starmer thanked them for the “clarification”, has said that he doesn’t believe trans women are women, and he - and Labour - are entirely in a position to do something about it (like saying “actually this isn’t right so we’re going to take steps to correct existing legislation”), I think we do in fact know their intentions in that space. I’m certainly not giving them the benefit of the doubt when it’s my right to exist in public that is in question