I’m a Black man with family terrified of the riots – Nigel Farage has a lot to answer for

The UK didn’t suddenly become bigoted last week. These people were simply waiting for an excuse, writes Femi Oluwole

Politicians have demanded the recall of parliament in the face of continuing anti-immigrant unrest (PA)

Does Keir Starmer know what it’s like to see your parents frantic on the family WhatsApp group, warning each other not to go into town because people might beat them to death for being Black? I do.

I woke up this morning, fists clenched, looking around my room, after having a nightmare that I was about to be pulled out of my car like the man in Hull. I don’t think Starmer understands the stakes here.

He may have vowed to prosecute those behind this “far-right thuggery”. But the people attacking mosques, pulling Asian men from their cars and beating up Black people in parks... they are a symptom of a problem that Starmer seems reluctant to take on.

The UK didn’t suddenly become bigoted last week. These people were waiting for an excuse, even if that meant spreading misinformation about the identity of a suspect in the killing of three young girls.

We saw people like Katie Hopkins misidentifying the Southport suspect with the wrong name. Nigel Farage questioned whether the police were “withholding the truth from us” about a potential terrorist motive.

(This from a man who, a few months prior, said: “We have a growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values. In fact, loathe much of what we stand for.” He even claimed that some recent surveys had found that “46 per cent of British Muslims support Hamas – support a terrorist organisation that is proscribed in this country”.

Yet the sad fact is that Labour politicians have also promoted narratives that endanger minorities. When discussing the asylum system, they constantly link controlling immigration with stopping crime, focusing on the smuggling gangs rather than the people in need. The political games of electioneering should be over. People’s lives are at stake.

Those attacking minorities and vandalising mosques are, of course, just a minority of violent bigots, but they are the product of prejudice within wider society. So for my family and millions of other families to feel safe, we need Starmer to address the root causes of that prejudice.

I’ll never forget what a Brexit voter from Wolverhampton told me in 2018. He was a working-class man, who had voted Leave because he blamed immigration for his drop in wages. He said: “If we were all on £1,000 a week, none of us would care.” If Starmer significantly improves the lives of working-class people, it will neutralise a lot of the far-right’s “blame the minorities” rhetoric.

The UK has an advantage over other countries where the far right is rising. We’ve already seen their agenda play out. So we have the proof to win every debate. Here it is:

The narrative that immigration drives down wages (on balance) has been disproven. Not only have Brexit and the labour shortages increased prices, but when working people – like teachers and nurses – demanded better pay, people like Farage accused the striking unions of being part of a “left-wing conspiracy”.

This shows that the problem isn’t immigrants, it’s a system – supported by right-wing politicians – that allows people to be exploited on low wages. And people who believed Farage’s promises in 2016 that Brexit would help them escape poverty were made all the poorer by it.

So Starmer can do what’s necessary to improve living standards without fearing a Farage backlash, because Farage’s agenda has already been debunked. That means taxing the rich to support infrastructure and services in poorer areas. It means allowing the immigration our ageing population needs – and undoing Brexit.

But let’s be real. When we talk about the damage racism does, we’re not even mainly talking about being jumped by a crowd of Tommy Robinson supporters.

We’re talking about all the rest, such as the fact that Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women, partly because of systemic discrimination. We’re talking about research that shows that having an ethnic minority name means you have to send 70 to 90 per cent more job applications to get a call back – which makes it 70 to 90 per cent harder to escape poverty and the mental and medical risks that come with it.

A hooded rioter with a brick is a distinct threat – but so are suit-wearing employers with a prejudice. Addressing these prejudices requires providing better education; it means introducing measures such as anonymous job applications so that more people from ethnic minorities can reach top positions in boardrooms, which will then improve the overall perception of ethnic minority people.

We need to address the societal bigotry from which such race riots spring – only that will help my loved ones feel safe, in all aspects of their lives. But if Starmer won’t stand up to someone like Farage, I don’t think he understands our fear.