UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak issued a warning about extremism on Friday night in a speech described as “a sobering warning of the fragility of democracy”.The PM said his Government will give officers its backing when they “take action” at pro-Palestinian demonstrations.He made the comments during a hastily arranged address outside No 10 Downing Street on Friday in which he railed against extremism and Islamism.He said the UK’s streets had been “hijacked” by people “hostile” to British values during protests in support of a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, which has raged for almost five months.Read his speech in full below:“In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality. What started as protests on our streets, has descended into intimidation, threats, and planned acts of violence. “Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveal their identity. Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with. “Now our democracy itself is a target. Council meetings and local events have been stormed. MPs do not feel safe in their homes. Long standing Parliamentary conventions have been upended because of safety concerns. And it is beyond alarming that last night the Rochdale by election returned a candidate… …who dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7th, who glorifies Hezbollah… …and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP. “I need to speak to you all this evening because this situation has gone on long enough… …and demands a response not just from government, but from all of us. Britain is a patriotic, liberal, democratic society with a proud past and a bright future. We are a reasonable country and a decent people. “Our story is one of progress, of great achievements and enduring values. Immigrants who have come here have integrated and contributed. They have helped write the latest chapter in our island story. They have done this without being required to give up their identity. You can be a practising Hindu and a proud Briton as I am. Or a devout Muslim and a patriotic citizen as so many are. Or a committed Jewish person and the heart of your local community… …and all underpinned by the tolerance of our established, Christian church. We are a country where we love our neighbours. “And we are building Britain together. But 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. Since October 7th there have been those trying to take advantage of the very human angst that we all feel… …about the terrible suffering that war brings to the innocent, to women and children… …to advance a divisive, hateful ideological agenda. On too many occasions recently, our streets have been hijacked by small groups… …who are hostile to our values and have no respect for our democratic traditions. Membership of our society is contingent on some simple things… …that you abide by the rule of law, and that change can only come through the peaceful, democratic process. Threats of violence and intimidation are alien to our way of doing things: they must be resisted at all times. “Nearly everyone in Britain supports these basic values but there are small and vocal hostile groups who do not. 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. “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. We must not allow that to happen.“When these groups claim that Britain is and has been on the wrong side of history, we should reject it, and reject it again. No country is perfect, but I am enormously proud of the good that our country has done. Our place in history is defined by the sacrifices our people have made, …in the service of our own freedom and that of others. And when these groups tell children that they cannot – and will not succeed – because of who they are… When they tell children that the system is rigged against them or that Britain is a racist country… This is not only a lie, but a cynical attempt to crush young dreams, and turn impressionistic minds against their own society. I stand here as our country’s first non-white Prime Minister, leading the most diverse government in our country’s history… …to tell people of all races, all faiths and all backgrounds… …it is not the colour of your skin, the God you believe in or where you were born, that will determine your success… …but just your own hard work and endeavour. “We must be prepared to stand up for our shared values in all circumstances, no matter how difficult. And I respect that the police have a tough job in policing the protests we have seen and that they are operationally independent. But we must draw a line. Yes, you can march and protest with passion… You can demand the protection of civilian life… …but no, you cannot call for violent Jihad. “There is no “context” in which it can be acceptable to beam antisemitic tropes onto Big Ben in the middle of a vote on Israel/Gaza. And there can be no cause you can use to justify the support of a proscribed terrorist group, like Hamas. Yes, you can freely criticise the actions of this government, or indeed any government: that is a fundamental democratic right. But no, you cannot use that as an excuse to call for the eradication of a State – or any kind of hatred or antisemitism. This week I have met with senior police officers and made clear it is the public’s expectation… …that they will not merely manage these protests, but police them. And I say this to the police, we will back you when you take action. “But if we are asking more of the police, we in government must also back up that call with action. To that end, this month the government will implement a new robust framework for how it deals with this issue. To ensure that we are dealing with the root causes of this problem… …and that no extremist organisations or individuals are being lent legitimacy… …by their actions and interactions with central government. You cannot be part of our civic life if your agenda is to tear it down. We will redouble our support for the Prevent programme to stop young minds being poisoned by extremism. We will demand that universities stop extremist activity on campus. We will also act to prevent people entering this country whose aim is to undermine its values. “The Home Secretary has instructed that if those here on visas… …choose to spew hate on protests or seek to intimidate people… …we will remove their right to be here. And our Britain must not be a country in which we descend into polarised camps… …with some communities living parallel lives. It is not enough to live side-by-side, we must live together… …united by shared values and a shared commitment to this country. And I want to speak directly to those who choose to continue to protest: Don’t let the extremists hijack your marches. “You have a chance in the coming weeks to show that you can protest decently, peacefully and with empathy for your fellow citizens. Let us prove these extremists wrong and show them that even when we disagree… …we will never be disunited from our common values of decency and respect. I love this country. My family and I owe it so much. The time has now come for us all to stand together to combat the forces of division and beat this poison. “We must face down the extremists who would tear us apart… …there must be leadership, not pandering or appeasement. When they tell their lies, we will tell the truth. When they try and sap our confidence, we will redouble our efforts. And when they try and make us doubt each other… …we will dig deeper for that extra ounce of compassion and empathy… …that they want us to believe doesn’t exist, but that I know does. If we can do that, we can build on our great achievement in creating today’s Britain… …a country of kind, decent, tolerant people. “We can make this a country in which we all feel a renewed sense of pride. This is our home. So let us go forward together, confident in our values and confident in our future. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email A veteran left-wing British political disruptor has won a special election in a town in northern England with a big Muslim minority following a contest that was mired in chaos and controversy and dominated by the Israel-Hamas war.George Galloway’s victory was described as “beyond alarming” by Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who used a Friday evening address to the nation to warn that British democracy was being targeted by extremists.Galloway, 69, swept to victory in Thursday’s contest, winning almost 40% of the vote in the parliamentary seat of Rochdale.In his victory speech, the fedora-wearing Galloway took aim at Keir Starmer, the leader of the main opposition Labour Party, who according to opinion polls is likely to become the United Kingdom’s prime minister in the general election this year. “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” he said. “You have paid, and you will pay, a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza Strip.”Galloway, a former Labour member of parliament who was expelled from the party in 2003, also declared “Labour is on notice” and hailed what he called a “shifting of the tectonic plates.”Labour said that Galloway only won because the party pulled its support for its candidate, Azhar Ali, for suggesting that Israel was complicit in Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, which saw militants kill around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and take about 250 others hostage. In the absence of Labour’s backing and with many of Rochdale’s Muslim voters dismayed at the party’s reluctance to call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, Ali ended up coming in fourth. “Galloway only won because Labour didn’t stand a candidate,” Starmer said. “Obviously we will put up a first-class candidate, a unifier, before the voters in Rochdale at the general election.”Galloway’s victory means that from next week, Parliament will once again be home to one of the most eloquent orators from the left wing of U.K. politics, who will clearly use his position to raise his opposition to Israel’s operation in Gaza, which, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, has led to the deaths of more than 30,000 people.The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish community organization in the U.K., said that Galloway’s victory marks “a dark day” for the U.K.’s Jewish community.“George Galloway is a demagogue and conspiracy theorist who has brought the politics of division and hate to every place he has ever stood for Parliament,” it said in a statement. The constituency of Rochdale has traditionally been a Labour seat. Galloway said that his Workers Party of Britain will contest similar seats in constituencies where there is a sizeable Muslim minority in the upcoming general election, which must take place within the next 11 months. The governing Conservative Party, which hasn’t historically performed well in Rochdale, came in third and voiced worries that Galloway’s victory will stoke tensions in the town and beyond.In an unexpected statement on Friday evening, Sunak made a call for unity while claiming that Galloway was a “candidate that dismisses the horror of what happened on Oct. 7, who glorifies Hezbollah.”Linking his victory with other divisive developments on the U.K. political scene since Hamas launched its attack and Israel’s subsequent response, Sunak said “our democracy itself is a target” for extremists, noting how some lawmakers in Parliament don’t feel safe in their homes and that local political meetings have been stormed.“In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality,” he said. “What started as protests on our streets have descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence. Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveals their identity. Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with.”He urged those joining the almost weekly mass protests against Israel’s offensive in central London and other towns and cities in the U.K. to do so respectfully, and said that his government would support police.Galloway poured scorn on a prime minister warning about democracy after he’d won an election. He dismissed Sunak’s central charge, telling Sky News that he does “not respect the prime minister at all” and that “millions and millions of people in this country despise the prime minister.” It’s not the first time that Galloway has created a stir since he began his political career a half-century ago as a firebrand left-wing Labour member of Parliament for a constituency in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1994, he faced widespread opposition for meeting then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and telling him: “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.” In 2004, he returned to Parliament as a lawmaker for the anti-war Respect Party after a special election in a heavily Muslim seat in east London, but was defeated in the general election the following year. He was elected again in a special election in 2012, but lost his seat once more in the election of 2015. As well as being an eloquent advocate for his political views, which saw him take U.S. senators to task in 2005, Galloway has also courted ridicule, most notably in 2006 when he impersonated a cat in the reality television show “Celebrity Big Brother.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has called for the country to come together to beat the “poison” of extremists targeting democracy, in a hastily arranged press conference in Downing Street. In an extraordinary address to the public, he warned there were forces “at home trying to tear us apart’’ adding ‘we must face (them) down”. Just hours after the victory of George Galloway in the Rochdale by-election, the prime minister branded his win “beyond alarming”. There had been a “shocking increase” in extremist disruption and criminality in recent months, in the wake of the war in Gaza, he said, as he announced a crackdown. “What started as protests on our streets have descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence,” he said. “Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveals their identity. Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with. Now our democracy itself is a target.” He cited council meetings and local events which have been targeted, said MPs do not feel safe in their own homes and long-standing parliamentary conventions had been “upended” because of safety concerns.”And it’s beyond alarming that last night, the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate that dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7, who glorifies Hezbollah and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP.”Mr Sunak annouced ministers would redouble support for the anti-terrorism Prevent programme, demand universities stop extremist activity on campus and prevent people entering the UK whose “aim is to undermine its values”.Home secretary James Cleverly has also been told that those in the UK on visas who choose to “spew hate” will have their right to be in the country removed.In a message directed at those taking part in pro-Palestine protests, he urged people to reject extremism.He said: “I want to speak directly to those who choose to continue to protest: don’t let the extremists hijack your marches.“You have a chance in the coming weeks to show that you can protest decently, peacefully and with empathy for your fellow citizens.“Let us prove these extremists wrong and show them that even when we disagree, we will never be disunited.”More demonstrations are planned for this weekend before another national march takes place in central London on March 9.Keir Starmer backed Mr Sunak’s intervention, saying: “The Prime Minister is right to advocate unity and to condemn the unacceptable and intimidatory behaviour that we have seen recently.” But Conservative peer Lord Vaizey said “many in the Tory party should look to themselves” when it comes to the toxification of public life.And the Liberal Democrats said the British people would ‘take no lessons from a Conservative party who have sowed the seeds of division’ over issues including plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Mr Sunak’s comments came just hours after Mr Galloway’s victory in the chaotic by-election was branded a “dark day for Jewish community”.Earlier this week the prime minister claimed the UK was descending into “mob rule” as he warned police must take urgent action or risk losing public confidence.The prime minister demanded a crackdown on protests as he said he would do “whatever it requires to protect our democracy”.And he told police chiefs during a meeting in Downing Street that they had to demonstrate they would “use the powers you already have”. Tensions have been heightened by protests over the war in Gaza, as MPs face intense pressure to back calls for a ceasefire.Mr Sunak has previously condemned an “aggressive mob” of pro-Palestinian protesters at the home of Tory MP Tobias Ellwood. There were also angry and chaotic scenes at Westminster last week after the Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle was accused of ripping up the parliamentary rule book over a ceasefire vote, because of concerns over what he said were “frightening” threats against MPs. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, a veteran Cuban dissident who never left the island despite being imprisoned twice and accused of being a United States agent, will be awarded the 2024 International Women of Courage Award, the U.S. Department of State said Friday.Roque, 78, who spent decades protesting against her country’s single-party model, said she will not be able to receive the prize in person because she has been “regulated” since 2018, meaning that she is prevented from leaving the island and cannot get a passport.“I am very happy about this award. I’m grateful to the United States embassy in Cuba that put forward the proposal,” Roque told The Associated Press in a recent interview at the residence of a U.S. official on the island. “At least it is a way of saying ‘you have spent 35 years working for Cuban democracy.’”The IWOC Award, now in its 18th year, recognizes women from around the world who have “demonstrated exceptional courage, strength and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality,” according to the U.S. State Department.Roque, an economist by profession, worked for the Cuban government before a political rupture that drew international attention in 1997 when, together with three other Cubans — Félix Bonne, René Gómez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca — she created the Internal Dissidence Working Group and signed a declaration titled “The Homeland belongs to everyone,” calling for political and economic openness.The so-called “Group of Four” ended up in court and Roque was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on charges of attacking State security and sedition. She was released in May 2000 but continued her activism and in 2002 formed The Assembly to Promote Civil Society.In March 2003, Roque was the only woman arrested — among 75 people — during a roundup of dissidents whom the government accused of accepting financing from the U.S. government and interest groups.She received a sentence of 20 years in prison in a trial in which the strongest witness against her was her own assistant, Aleida Godínez, who then identified herself as a government security agent. In July 2004 Roque was released — but not exonerated — for medical reasons.The European Union and organizations such as Amnesty International pressed for the release of the 75 prisoners who were finally released — the last in 2011 — under a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic Church and the government of Spain. Many went into exile with their families.Today, away from public view, Roque says she regrets that the record migration from the island is holding up the creation of a real opposition and says that her legacy as a veteran dissident is precisely her staying in the country.“As part of the old opposition, we are going to leave behind an example because not everyone (the dissidents) left, but almost everyone went to prison,” she said.Roque also expressed regret about some of the radical comments she made during her life as a dissident, like saying she didn’t care if the U.S. invaded Cuba to overthrow the government.“I am not the person I was 15 or 20 years ago … and my experience would make me not say things that I said in the past,” Roque told the AP. “I firmly think that the solution for the people of Cuba is here, inside the country, just as other countries have come to solve their dictatorial problem.”____Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america More