Janice R. Andrews
“Stop the Boats”: A Rallying Cry Becomes a Slogan
A terrifying cry that has surfaced in the UK amid an upsurge in far-right violence is “Stop the boats.” This term has been a rallying cry for radicals and was a pillar of previous prime minister Rishi Sunak’s promise to reduce illegal immigration. Far-right organisations have appropriated the term, which was once meant to convey a harsh stance on immigration, sparking a surge of attacks on mosques and refugee accommodations throughout the nation.
Al Jazeera collected footage of Sunak making frequent reference to “stop the boats” in public speeches. This catchphrase has been accused of inciting fear and divisiveness and has subsequently come to represent a larger global campaign alerting migrants to the risks of entering the UK illegally.
Language Dehumanisation and Its Effects
The discourse around immigration has extended beyond Sunak’s own experience. When debating the matter, a number of Conservatives have used polarising and dehumanising rhetoric. For example, the phrase “invasion” used by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman to characterise the landing of asylum seekers on England’s coastlines has drawn criticism due to its incendiary implications.
Robert Jenrick, the former minister of immigration, has also made contentious statements. Jenrick is currently presenting himself as a possible leader of the Conservative Party. Jenrick asserted that immigrants brought “completely different lifestyles and values” that were at conflict with UK culture in a lecture given to the Policy Exchange think tank last year. Such remarks have been viewed as fostering an atmosphere of mistrust and animosity towards immigrants.
Inaccurate and Extremist Rumours
The dissemination of misleading information exacerbated the problem. Prominent member of Parliament and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage spread a false report that the Southport stabbings’ culprit was an immigrant Muslim. Even if the accusations were untrue, Farage’s hints fanned the flames. Just one day after the deadly stabbings, on July 30, Farage shared a video on social media in which he questioned if the public was being kept in the dark and that it was “quite legitimate to ask questions.”
Although Farage has since denounced the riots on social media, others contend that his earlier acts were a major contributing factor to the violence. A Green Party spokesman, Amanda Onwuemene, said Politico that Farage is “significantly responsible for the horrific violence we’ve seen over the past week” and that he “spent years encouraging racism and toxifying our public debate.”
Demonising Refugees and Their Repercussions
Diane Abbott, a veteran Labour MP who was elected to Parliament in 1987 as the first Black woman, has been outspoken in her condemnation of the state of politics today. Abbott said that politicians have been “demonising asylum seekers year in, year out” when speaking on the BBC’s Today show. She made a connection between this language and the recent acts of violence by saying, “People can try to burn down the hotels where asylum seekers are living because of this.” It all connects here if you demonise individuals and discuss problems as though they don’t involve people.
Politicians must categorically denounce the violence as “racist and Islamophobic,” according to Abbott. She did point out that many politicians in the UK have refrained from using this phrase, referring to the riots as “anti-immigration protests” or “far-right thuggery.”
The Misconception of Immigrants and Muslims
Professor of criminology Chris Allen notes that there is an increasing confusion between Muslims and immigrants in the UK, drawing on his 25 years of research on Islamophobia in Britain. He contends that this confusion “did not happen in a vacuum.” According to Allen, mainstream politicians are increasingly adopting far-right language that targets immigrants and Muslims. He draws attention to the unsettling parallels between some politicians’ rhetoric and the language being used in the current riots.
Allen chastised politicians such as Labour leader Keir Starmer for not using the word “Islamophobia” in an essay for The Conversation. Starmer promised the Muslim community that he would take all necessary precautions to keep them safe, but he refrained from using the phrase, which Allen interprets as a refusal to fully accept the problem. “As we know, this has never happened, so acknowledging that Islamophobia exists would mean having to do something about it,” says Allen.
The Wider Consequences
The violence that has persisted and the rhetoric that has encouraged it draw attention to the risky convergence of politics and extremism in the UK. There’s a rising push for political leaders to own up to the repercussions of their remarks as the nation deals with the impact from these events. The task at hand is to tackle the fundamental problems that have given rise to such discourse and to chart a course for the future that encourages cooperation rather than conflict.
