Senior Tories had previously condemned last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests
Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has hit out at the Conservative Party, after some of its most high-profile members criticised the Black Lives Matter movement.
In an interview conducted earlier today with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Home Secretary Priti Patel said she did not agree with taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter – and would have refused to do so last summer when the protests gathered pace across Europe.
“No I would not, I would not have at the time either. There are other ways in which people can express their opinions,” Ms Patel said.
“Protesting in the way which people did last summer was not the right way at all.”
As the Black Lives Matter protests hit the UK, it prompted many to question Britain’s involvement in the historic slave trade.
Patel said: “We saw statues being brought down and some councils making, quite frankly, a stance around statues and street names.”
Perhaps the most notable demonstration of this kind took place in Bristol, when protestors tore down the statue of Edward Colston and plunged it into Bristol Harbour.
Patel’s comments understandably attracted criticism, and the former Labour Party leader has now responded.
In a tweet posted this afternoon, Jeremy Corbyn branded Patel and other senior Tories “disgraceful” and “reactionary”. Corbyn also drew comparisons between these individuals and Trump in America.
Disgraceful and reactionary attacks on successive days from senior Tories on the #BlackLivesMatter movement and Sadiq Khan.
Trump may have gone – but the Tories are still using his rotten playbook.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) February 12, 2021
“Trump may have gone – but the Tories are still using his rotten playbook,” Corbyn wrote.
Earlier this week, Jacob Rees-Mogg criticised Mayor of London Sadiq Khan for a diversity report he had produced. Khan’s report claims that many of London’s historic buildings, street names and statues “largely reflect a bygone era”, but Rees-Mogg pressured Khan to spare London of “loony left-wing wheezes”.
Rees-Mogg, the Member of Parliament for North Somerset, then added that councils should be responsible for street names, not the Mayor.
