Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that Islamist and “far-right” extremism “are trying to tear us apart” in an impromptu speech from Downing Street on Friday evening in the wake of leftist populist George Galloway winning the by-election in Rochdale.
Speaking from the steps of Number 10, Sunak said that there has been a “shocking increase” in extremist activity on the streets of Britain following the October 7th Hamas terror attacks on Israel and warned that “democracy itself is a target”.
“I fear that our great achievement in building the world’s most successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracy is being deliberately undermined. There are forces here at home trying to tear us apart,” the prime minister said.
Since October 7th, major cities in the UK like London have seen persistent pro-Palestinian protests featuring radical rhetoric, including the justification of the terror attacks and genocidal calls against Israel. There has also been increased security for members of parliament over concerns of Islamist attacks, and the speaker of the House of Commons claimed last week that he was forced into breaking protocol because he wanted to protect parliamentarians from violent reprisals.
Yet, despite the apparent one-sidedness of the extremist threat, Sunak made sure to inlcude both the “far-right’ and Islamist groups in his speech, saying: “Islamist extremists and the far right feed off and embolden each other. They are equally desperate to pretend that their violence is somehow justified when actually these groups are two sides of the same extremist coin.
“Neither group accept that change in our country can only come through the peaceful democratic process. Both loathe the pluralist, modern country we are. Both want to set Briton against Briton to weaponise the evils of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred for their own ends.”
Sunak continued by saying that the “faith of Islam, peacefully practised by millions of our fellow citizens is emphatically not the same thing as the extremist political ideology of Islamism which aims to separate Muslims from the rest of society.”
“Islamist extremists and far rights groups are spreading a poison, that poison is extremism. It aims to drain us of our confidence in ourselves as a people, and in our shared future.
“They want us to doubt ourselves, to doubt each other, to doubt our country’s history and achievements. They want us to accept a moral equivalence between Britain and some of the most despicable regimes in the world. They want us to believe that our country, and the West more generally, is solely responsible for the world’s ills and that we, along with our allies, are the problem. In short, they want to destroy our confidence and hope.”
The unscheduled speech came in the wake of leftist-populist George Galloway winning the by-election in Rochdale, with his far-left Worker’s Party of Britain party besting both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party in the contest largely on the back of support from the large Muslim population in the area. Following his win, Galloway proclaimed in his victory speech that: “This is for Gaza”.
The speech from Sunak was widely criticised from various ends of the political spectrum, including by left-wing trade unionist Paul Embery, who said: “Far-right groups’? Which ‘far-right groups’? The British far-right has never been more impotent. What is he going on about?”
British security services have long admitted that the number one threat posed by extremists comes from radical Islam, despite the persistent media coverage of the “far-right”.
Meanwhile, historian and New Culture Forum political commentator Rafe Heydel-Mankoo described Sunak’s statement as “weak” and “a speech for 2004, not 2024.”
“Sunak remains petrified by political correctness, unable to discuss the Islamist mountain without also mentioning the far-right molehill. It was a speech with neither policies nor solutions. No recognition of the dark side of diversity. No warning about the politics of Pakistan coming to Rochdale. No plan to combat the extremism in mosques and Muslim ghettoes. Nothing about restricting immigration from Islamist hotspots,” he said.
Indeed, under Sunak’s leadership, immigration has continued to hit new highs, with the UK granting a record 1.4 million visas last year, despite longstanding promises from the Conservative Party to reduce migration following Brexit.