Cliff Notes
- Labour peer Harriet Harman criticises Sir Keir Starmer for dismissing Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville Roberts during PMQs by saying “you’re rubbish” instead of clarifying his immigration policy.
- Harman emphasises the importance of communication, suggesting Starmer should have explained his intentions rather than attacking the messenger.
- Controversy arose over Starmer’s “island of strangers” phrase in his immigration speech, drawing parallels to historical inflammatory rhetoric.
Starmer condemned for telling MP ‘she talks rubbish’ | Politics News
Sir Keir Starmer should have reassured and explained his immigration policy to a senior Welsh MP rather than telling her “you’re rubbish”, Labour peer Harriet Harman said.
Speaking to Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Harriet Harman criticised the prime minister for telling Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts during PMQs “she talks rubbish” after she called him out for using “island of strangers” in his immigration speech on Monday.
Baroness Harman said: “He should have actually explained ‘look, this is what we’re getting at. We’re it’s a communitarian message, it’s about neighbourliness, it’s about integration’.
“And he should have done that and reassured her and explained rather than just slapping her down.
“I just think to call across the chamber, ‘you’re rubbish’ – I think a prime minister has the opportunity to be a bit more magisterial in that.”
She said she has “been that woman standing there asking the prime minister a heartfelt and serious question, and had the prime minister say, ‘you’re rubbish'”.