Wes Streeting 'Tide of racism being cloaked as free speech'

Wes Streeting has called it “laughable” that rising racism and homophobia is deemed a sign of free speech, in a strongly worded intervention suggesting Labour needed to step up its defence of minorities.

- Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor

The health secretary told the LGBT Foundation on Monday he wanted to address “the elephant in the room” and said he understood why some were questioning “whether this government is really on our side”.

He said the far-right protests at the weekend were “not the kind of country any of us want to live in”.

He told an audience of healthcare workers: “Black and Asian members of our community have the added fear of an increasingly visible tide of racism in our country that cloaks itself in our country’s flag and laughably claims to be a champion of ‘free speech’.

“Free speech, that is, unless that freedom includes the right to worship a different God, or the right to march through central London protesting atrocities in Gaza or the right just to walk down Oxford Street without being called the P-word, the N-word, or having your hijab ripped off.”

He added: “I don’t think the government can afford to bury our heads in the sand about the fact that trans people in our country today feel less safe than they did 10 years ago.”