Fury as Keir Starmer stays SILENT over  ‘vile’ Priti Patel letter from Labour MPs

Keir Starmer is facing huge pressure to condemn a letter from dozens of his MPs accusing Priti Patel of ‘gaslighting’ Black Lives Matter protesters by talking about her own experiences of racism.

The Labour leader has refused to criticise the letter, signed by frontbenchers, despite a wave of outrage and fury from the Home Secretary.

Meanwhile, London mayor Sadiq Khan defended the MPs for demanding Ms Patel recognise that racism against the black community was ‘different’, swiping that she ‘lacked emotional intelligence’.  

The Labour politicians laid into Ms Patel for the way she spoke about her own background as the daughter of Gujarati refugees from Uganda during a Commons debate on BLM demos earlier this week.

The letter voiced ‘dismay at the way you used your heritage and experiences of racism to gaslight the very real racism faced by Black people and communities across the UK’.

In a stinging rebuke, they said: ‘Being a person of colour does not automatically make you an authority on all forms of racism.’

However, an incensed Ms Patel shot back: ‘I will not be silenced by @UKLabour MPs who continue to dismiss the contributions of those who don’t conform to their view of how ethnic minorities should behave.’

Cabinet ministers have lined up behind their colleague, with Matt Hancock swiping that critics seemed to ‘think there is such a thing as the wrong type of BAME’. ‘We think that people are equal,’ he told the daily Downing Street briefing. 

Former chancellor Sajid Javid posted on Twitter: ‘Imagine listening to an ethnic-minority woman’s history of suffering racist abuse – and then deciding that you’d rather condemn the victim than her abusers. 

‘All because she doesn’t fit your stereotype. An utterly misguided and irresponsible letter.’ 

Labour sources stressed that the letter was organised by the MPs themselves rather than the party, and declined to say whether Sir Keir agreed with the content. 

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds today dodged the issue by saying she would not ‘speak for my colleagues’, adding that the Government had done ‘nothing’ to tackle racial inequalities. 

But Tory MP Bob Blackman told MailOnline: ‘If you are silent, you condone it. He should be saying, we should not be doing this. A failure to do so is a failure of leadership.’ 

Fellow Conservative Neil O’Brien tweeted: ‘Day two and still no condemnation of this vile letter from Starmer – thought he was better than that.’ 

A senior Tory source: “Starmer now needs to pick a side on this. He either needs to condone or condemn – and quickly” 

Mr Khan told Sky News he was ‘not sure’ whether Ms Patel’s words amount to ‘gaslighting’, and said he did not doubt she had suffered racism.

But he said the Labour MPs had been pointing out that she should show ‘respect’ and ‘understand that everyone’s experiences are different’. 

‘I think what the MPs were calling for is some empathy and sympathy from Priti Patel,’ he said. ‘She is the Home Secretary with a huge amount of a power.

‘When you lead with words like ”thuggery”, ”recklessness” and ”criminality” it shows a lack of emotional intelligence.’ 

Speaking on BBC Breakfast earlier, Ms Dodds said: ‘I’m not going to speak for my colleagues, and actually as I understand it, part of what they are pointing attention to is the fact that black people’s voices often haven’t been heard and they need to be heard.

‘Now what’s critically important to me and what I find quite frustrating about this is that we know those racial inequalities are there… time and time again people were asking when action was going to come.

‘We’ve had the Windrush review, the Lammy review, and the Public Health England review, all showing there’s substantial racial inequality and prejudice, and nothing being done about it.

‘To me that’s got to be the focus, we’ve got to take action against these inequalities.’