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Bloomberg

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to counter the rise of the far-right in the UK by delivering fundamental change to the economy, despite having to make unpopular choices along the way.
A week after Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a state election in eastern Germany, Starmer said he was worried about the rise of the far-right across Europe.
“We can see what’s happening in Germany with the recent election, and we can see what’s happening in France and other countries, and I’m worried about the far-right because it’s the snake oil of the easy answer,” Starmer said in an interview with the BBC broadcast on Sunday.
Far-right riots swept England just weeks after Starmer’s election this summer. The unrest erupted after false reports spread online about the identity of the suspect in a stabbing in Southport, near Liverpool, that left three young girls dead.

Starmer said he was “convinced that the solution” is for his Labour government to deliver the change they promised in their election manifesto earlier this year.
He said he was “utterly focused” on improving living standards, to “make sure we have properly functioning services, particularly the NHS, and to deal with issues like immigration and crime and sewage”.
But he also acknowledged that will mean him taking unpopular decisions. On Tuesday, Starmer could face a rebellion from his own MPs as he seeks to pass a contentious bill in parliament that will scrap the winter fuel allowance for most pensioners.
Starmer defended the move, saying it was needed to help fill a £22 billion (US$29 billion) “black hole” in the nation’s finances. The savings made would be used to fund the National Health Service and public transport, which pensioners also rely on. He argued that the overall state pension increase during the course of the current parliament would outstrip any reduction in the fuel payments.
“We’re going to have to be unpopular. Tough decisions are tough decisions. Popular decisions aren’t tough. They’re easy,” he said.
Starmer is also set to make a second visit to the White House in the coming week, soon after taking a controversial decision to suspend some Israel arms licenses. The decision was made because of concerns that the use of British components in Gaza risks violating international humanitarian law.
Starmer shrugged off any potential criticism from the US, saying he had discussed the decision with Washington both before and after the announcement.
Instead, he said he wanted to focus on the war in Ukraine, which he said “is becoming ever more pressing”.

Meanwhile, Starmer has said his decision to remove a portrait of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher from a study in his residence on Downing Street was not about her “at all”.
Eyebrows were raised when reports emerged that Starmer would remove the painting from his private study.
But the prime minister said the reason for the move was because he did not like the idea of pictures staring down at him while he worked.
He told the BBC: “This is not actually about Margaret Thatcher at all. I don’t like images and pictures of people staring down at me”.
Starmer added: “This is my study, it is my private place where I go to work. I didn’t want a picture of anyone”.
The portrait, commissioned by Gordon Brown in 2007, was hung in the room sometimes known as the Thatcher study by David Cameron.
Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin revealed recently the portrait had been removed from the room as he found it “unsettling”, leading to backlash from some opposition commentators and politicians.
Additional reporting by dpa


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Britain

UK’s Keir Starmer warns that far-right offers ‘snake oil’ of easy answers

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Photo: BBC via Reuters

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in an interview with the BBC. Photo: Photo: BBC via AFP

A portrait of Margaret Thatcher. File photo: Reuters

UK PM Keir Starmer urges European allies to meet far-right ‘challenge’

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of the Paralympics Games opening ceremony on Wednesday. They will meet in Paris on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Germany’s far-right AfD wins first regional election, exit polls show

People sit near a sign that reads “No to Nazis” on the day of the Thuringia state election in Erfurt, Germany on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

AfD member Bjorn Hocke speaks to the media after first exit polls in the Thuringia state elections, in Erfurt, Germany on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

People hold a banner reading “Bjoern Hoecke is a Nazi” during a protest on Sunday against an election party of AfD supporters for the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia at Berlin-Blankenburg. Photo: dpa

A children’s drawing reading “For our future” is fixed next to a sign indicating the way to a polling station in Maxen near Dresden, eastern Germany, during Saxony’s regional elections on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Protesters hold placards reading ‘Heart instead of agitation’ during a protest in commemoration of the Solingen knife attack, at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

BSW party leader Sahra Wagenknecht, centre, and top candidate Katja Wolf, right, react after first exit polls in the Thuringia state elections in Erfurt, Germany on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Demonstrators march from the Thuringian state parliament through Erfurt during an anti-fascist rally following the state elections in Thuringia, Germany on Sunday. Photo: dpa

Demonstrators march from the Thuringian state parliament through Erfurt during an anti-fascist rally on Sunday. Photo: dpa

Rise of Germany’s far-right AfD stokes fears at concentration camp site

A woman protests against racism and the politics of the AfD that has little chance of entering government in Thuringia or elsewhere for now as all other political parties have refused to ally with it to form a government. Photo: dpa

People protest against racism and the politics of the AfD in front of St. Paul’s Church. Photo: dpa

Historian Jens-Christian Wagner, who runs the memorial at Germany’s former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, is no stranger to death threats but he fears more trouble ahead after AfD’s election triumph. Photo: AFP

People in Thuringia, where AfD won 33 per cent of the vote on Sunday, protest under the slogan “In Weimar, young people are standing up against AfD, fascism and crisis mode”. Photo: dpa

Starmer to warn UK life will ‘get worse’ before it gets ‘better’ in first major PM speech

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a press conference at 10 Downing street in London on August 1. Photo: Reuters. 

Rachel Reeves, Britain’s finance minister, speaks at the House of Commons in London, Britain on July 29. Photo: UK Parliament / Jessica Taylor / Handout via Reuters

A broken window at a takeaway restaurant in Middlesbrough, England on August 5 following rioting and looting the day before. Photo: AFP

UK suspends 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel

An Israeli soldier stands guard in the West Bank settlement of Karme Tsur on Saturday. Photo: AP

UK foreign secretary David Lammy, left, shakes hands with Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz after a meeting in Jerusalem, Israel on August 16. Photo: Bloomberg

News

World

Europe

Britain’s prime minister says he’s making unpopular decisions early following his election victory in July


Britain’s prime minister says he’s making unpopular decisions early following his election victory in July.
