Skip to main content
Advertise with the Morning Star
Racism is the cause of the far-right riots, not deprivation
DIANE ABBOTT takes issue with the way politicians and the media are portraying the recent wave of violence which lets racists off the hook
ACTION AND REACTION: (L to R) Anti-racist activists confront anti-immigration mobs outside the Refugee and Migrant centre in Birmingham on Wednesday August 7 2024; A fire-damaged Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) office in Sunderland during the race riots of August 3 2024

IT IS important to correctly characterise the recent racist riots.

As is usually the case after a major upheaval in politics, all sorts of explanations are offered. Many of them will be from people or forces with a political agenda, not an objective assessment.

We should not be surprised now when politicians and others who want to downplay the issue of racism as the driving force behind
the riots who themselves have been unwilling to challenge racism over several years or have even fostered it.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Home Office of Border Force officers process small boat migrants detained, under the UK's new ‘one in, one out’ deal with France, at the Manston Immigration Processing Centre in Kent before relocation to the Immigration Removal Centre to await their return to France, August 7 2025
Features / 6 September 2025
6 September 2025

DIANE ABBOTT exposes the misconceptions, rumours and downright lies perpetrated around immigration issues

Reform party leader Nigel Farage takes part in media interviews after holding a news conference in central London, August 4, 2025
Features / 23 August 2025
23 August 2025

Every Starmer boast about removing asylum-seekers probably wins Reform another seat while Labour loses more voters to Lib Dems, Greens and nationalists than to the far right — the disaster facing Labour is the leadership’s fault, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP

People during a Stand Up To Racism protest near the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf, London where asylum seekers are planned to be housed, July 25, 2025
Features / 9 August 2025
9 August 2025

DIANE ABBOTT explodes the anti-migrant myths perpetrated by cynical politicians and an irresponsible mass media

Traji Adwan (centre) mourns during the funeral of her 11-year-old grandchild Qais, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza that has been used as a shelter, at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, July 25, 2025
Features / 26 July 2025
26 July 2025

Our Foreign Secretary now condemns Israel in the Commons, yet Britain still supplies weapons and intelligence for its bombing campaigns — as the horror reaches perhaps the final stage, action must finally replace words, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP

Similar stories
Home Office of Border Force officers process small boat migrants detained, under the UK's new ‘one in, one out’ deal with France, at the Manston Immigration Processing Centre in Kent before relocation to the Immigration Removal Centre to await their return to France, August 7 2025
Features / 6 September 2025
6 September 2025

DIANE ABBOTT exposes the misconceptions, rumours and downright lies perpetrated around immigration issues

People during a Stand Up To Racism protest near the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf, London where asylum seekers are planned to be housed, July 25, 2025
Features / 9 August 2025
9 August 2025

DIANE ABBOTT explodes the anti-migrant myths perpetrated by cynical politicians and an irresponsible mass media

MILLSTONE: Parts of the Labour Party see Nigel Farage’s Re
Features / 8 February 2025
8 February 2025
You only have to look at the dire polling of Labour’s sister parties in Europe to see that aping the hard right on migration leads to spectacularly bad results, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (left) and British Pri
Labour Conference 2024 / 21 September 2024
21 September 2024
The government mantra that ‘things will only get worse’ is almost designed to fuel the far right – and grim warnings from Europe suggest Britain’s future direction of travel too, says DIANE ABBOTT MP