Why is Starmer starting rows before the election?

The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he didn’t mean to cause ‘concern or offence’ when he called for more Bangladeshi asylum seekers to be deported. His comments – singling out Bangladesh as a place where more people could be returned to from the UK – have sparked uproar in the British-Bangladeshi community (traditionally Labour-supporting), as well as strong criticism from some of Starmer’s own MPs, councillors and activists. What exactly did the Labour leader say that has landed him in such hot water? Speaking specifically about people who come to the UK illegally, Starmer told the Sun newspaper: ‘I’ll make sure we get planes going off… back to the countries where people came from.’ This is when he raised the specific example of Bangladeshi migrants, saying: ‘at the moment people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed’.

This prompted a furious response.