“We must face down the extremists who would tear us apart,” Sunak declared to the country on Friday evening. And perhaps never were truer words spoken – at least not by this morally bankrupt prime minister, who is rapidly proving to be one of the most dangerously irresponsible leaders this country has ever faced.
I am still in disbelief at the sheer chutzpah of Sunak wheeling out the No 10 lectern and calling on the whole nation to tune in to an emergency address. Because what came next was not the announcement of a major natural disaster or attack. It wasn’t, as we saw from other world leaders that day, a condemnation of open gunfire against starving people trying to reach aid trucks in Gaza, or a statement of solidarity with Russian protesters against Putin. It wasn’t even the calling of an election.
Instead, what Britain got was a masterclass in gaslighting. Sunak’s performance made a new art form of rank hypocrisy, as he pretended not to know that the very extremism he criticised was being actively driven by his party and peddled in his speech.
He dared to criticise others for being divisive and separating Muslims from the rest of society, having spent the past few weeks failing to call out and condemn Islamophobia within the ranks of his own party. He railed against people who loathe the “pluralist, modern country we are”, without once acknowledging that his former home secretary Suella Braverman is precisely one of those people. It was all the more sickening to hear the prime minister utter faint words of praise for immigrants in a speech that actively threatened their democratic right to protest, by suggesting the government would “remove their right to be here” if they speak what it considers “hate” at protests.
He also had the audacity to point the finger at others for crushing the dreams of young people, when his party has failed this generation repeatedly – be that on affordable homes and renters’ rights, or the climate emergency that so seriously threatens their futures.
And what a moment of utter cognitive dissonance to see Sunak portray himself as a champion of British democracy after successive Tory governments’ constant efforts to undermine it at every turn, from making it harder to vote, to criminalising protest, attacking the Electoral Commission and planning to curb the power of the courts to scrutinise government policy. This is not to mention riding roughshod over UK and international law to pass the cruel and inhumane Rwanda bill.
This was a speech of breathtaking hypocrisy. But worse than that, it was dangerous. It ought to have been an attempt to defuse tensions and take the heat out of divisions that have been so inflamed by the toxic political discourse of recent weeks.
But Sunak actively chose to pour more petrol on the flames, abandoning any last semblance of responsibility, as he spoke of our streets being “hijacked” by violent extremists calling for jihad, while his own colleagues spread their dangerous no-go zone myths. Despite making nominal references to the threat from the far right, this was a speech that will have only further emboldened it in its anti-Muslim racism. In the very act of pretending to seek to heal divisions, he was deliberately creating more.
Because he knows all too well that words have consequences. He is aware of the horrifying rise in violence and racism being suffered by British Jews, Muslims and anyone perceived to be other. He will know about the rising threat of far-right extremists. He won’t have forgotten the very real threat of violence at the Cenotaph from a mob whipped up and emboldened by his then home secretary.
By choosing to give that inflammatory speech, Sunak has shown that he is prepared to lurch even further to the right in a bid to stop defections to the Reform UK party. The mask has well and truly slipped: this was yet another step in the culture war right from the very top. The hard right of his party will have been overjoyed to see Sunak the strongman, cracking down on dissent, stifling protest and taking aim at immigrants and Muslims.
Ultimately, that speech was a dark moment in British politics. Democracy is indeed under threat from extremists. The problem is, they’re running the government itself – and we need to wake up and stand up to the seriousness of the threat that they pose.
Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion
