UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s stance on hate speech should make Australian’s take note

The UK Prime Minister delivered a speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street that should make Australia’s political class stand up and take notice, writes James Campbell.

On Friday the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivered a speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street that ought to make Australia’s political class sit up and take notice as the forces he was describing and warning against are at work here too.

It was prompted by the shock victory of the ex-Labour MP George Galloway in a by-election.

Galloway is a political type for which until very recently there was no real equivalent in Australia – a hard-leftist who makes common cause with Islamists.

Since October 7 he has played down Hamas’s attacks on Israel claiming among things there were no rapes any only one baby died.

He won after the Labour candidate was dumped for saying Israel had deliberately allowed its citizens to be killed so it could invade Gaza.

Galloway made no bones that his win in the 30 per cent Muslim seat was all about recent events in the Middle-East, saying “this one’s for Gaza”.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gives a speech at Downing Street on March 1, 2024 in London, England. The Prime Minister spoke about a an increase in criminality related to extremism, saying we must "draw a line". Picture: Getty Images

His victory capped months in which the temperature on Britain’s streets has risen as Israel’s military operation has rolled on.

“In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality,” Sunak began.

“What started as protests on our streets has descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence. Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveal their identity. Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with.

“Now our democracy itself is a target. Council meetings and local events have been stormed. MPs do not feel safe in their homes. Longstanding parliamentary conventions have been up-ended because of safety concerns.”

Now no one would pretend the situation here is as bad as the situation in the UK. Yet.

But reports of incidents of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim intimidation are increasing and MPs’ offices too have been targeted.

The new Workers Party Member of Parliament for Rochdale, George Galloway poses for a photograph outside his campaign headquarters in Rochdale, northern England on March 1, 2024, on the day he was elected as MP following a by-election. Picture: AFP

There are also politicians willing to try and exploit the tension for political gain.

In Melbourne the Greens are eyeing off the seats of Wills and Cooper where Labor MPs depend on the votes of social conservative Muslim voters to hold off the advancing hordes of pasty-faced kale eaters.

Imagine my shock last week when the NSW Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi – the party’s only Muslim MP – warned Labor MPs to “think twice” before turning up to any Iftar dinners this year.

“The Muslim community across Australia is angry, frustrated and feels completely betrayed by Labor,” she said, adding the party “can’t hide from their complicity in Israel’s bloodbath”.

Muslims she said “will not be taken for granted and used as photo opportunities during Ramadan by the very same politicians who have failed to even condemn Israel.

“If Labor politicians won’t show up for us now at a time when everyone is grieving, then they better not show up at our iftars either.”

Let’s be clear about this – we’ve had politicians seek to use suspicions of a religious group to try and win votes before.

But I can’t before remember a member of a mainstream political party seeking to weaponise their own religious community to win votes.

Not to mention this iftar boycott call is more than a little rough on Muslim Labor MP’s Ed Husic, Anne Aly and Fatima Payman.

What made Sunak’s speech so important was he was signalling that after years of looking the other way in the name of keeping the peace, the UK Government has had enough and is going to start putting a bit of stick about.

While careful to stress the targeting of Muslims by the Far Right is as great an evil as Jew hatred, at its core was a blunt message to protesters as well as to Britain’s police.

”I respect that the police have a tough job in policing the protests we have seen and that they are operationally independent but we must draw a line,” he warned the coppers.

“And yes, you can march and protest with passion. You can demand the protection of civilian life. But no, you cannot call for violent jihad. There is no “context” in which it can be acceptable to beam antisemitic tropes onto Big Ben in the middle of a vote on Israel/Gaza. And there’s no cause you can use to justify the support of proscribed terrorist groups, such as Hamas.

“Yes, you can freely criticise the actions of this government, or indeed any government: that is a fundamental democratic right. But no, you cannot use that as an excuse to call for the eradication of a state — or any kind of hatred or antisemitism.”

Meanwhile in Australia speakers at rallies praise Palestinian “martyrs” while their crowds chant “From the river to sea Palestine will be free”.

And our leaders say little.

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Originally published as UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s stance on hate speech should make Australian’s take note