Keir Starmer’s shock at homophobia is absurd and ignorant

‘I was absolutely furious…beyond almost uncontainable fury’.

This was Keir Starmer’s response on Pete Wicks’ podcast Man Made, to the homophobic attack his niece endured for holding hands with her wife, which is of course a normal reaction to this horrible crime.

But hearing him discuss the incident left me feeling angry.

‘Having my own niece being beaten up in the street for being gay’, Starmer continues, ‘I thought we moved on from that’.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

The fact that Starmer had believed we moved on from violent homophobia is not only absurd, but displays an ignorance that seems to be evident in the way the Labour Party treats LGBT+ people.

As a white cis straight man, he of course wouldn’t have the experiences of queer or trans people, but as our Prime Minister he should surely understand the ongoing cases of LGBT+ hate crimes.

Queer people are simply not feeling safe in the UK.

In a 2025 report by YouGov, gay men are 56% of gay men are uncomfortable holding hands with their partner and 63% would feel discomfort giving their partner a kiss. Whereas it is only 9% of straight men and women who feel discomfort from holding hands in public.

The UK used to be the safest place in the world for LGBT+ people – according to ILGA Europe, an international human rights group, in 2015 we placed number one. The contrast now of course is that we’ve dropped down to the 22nd safest country.

This should be alarming to Starmer, but instead, he is shocked when his own family experiences the violence queer people have been reporting in ever greater numbers. 

In 2016, a man kicked and stamped on a lesbian couple who were dragged into an alley and attacked late at night in London.

In 2019 two women were left covered in blood after a homophobic attack on a bus in London for not kissing on demand.

In 2023, a lesbian couple were punched and attacked for hugging at a bus shelter in Dublin.

These are some reported cases, but many more go unreported, partly down to the increased distrust LGBT+ people have in the police force.

I’ve had someone yell ‘dirty lesbos’ at me and a masculine presenting lesbian as we walked hand in hand during a particularly hot day in 2020, on our way to a bar in Dalston. We weren’t even dating. 

The remark didn’t really shock us, but it did make me look over my shoulder regularly in case he came back.

In 2021, a man approached me on the tube when I was wearing an LGBT+ pin on my coat and stood up to move his crotch next to my face before asking if I’m a lesbian. I ran off the train shaking.

And now, when I put that pin on my coat or bag, I think about where I am going and who I could interact with, because the fear of being beaten up for being queer isn’t a shocking anomaly, but a reality in our lives. 

In my view, the Conservative Party is to blame for much of this, however, Keir Starmer and the Labour Party have done very little to make us feel safer now. In fact, I think they’re making life harder for many of us by creating a hostile environment.

A YouGov poll from October this year shows that 84% of trans people feel Britain is unsafe for them, since the government has been using single-sex spaces and toilets as a battlefield to strip them of their rights.

On top of this the Labour Party have been delaying the ban on conversion practices to the LGBT+ community, which only adds more concern to our safety. It feels like it’s been placed on the backburner – as something with little priority. But the reality is, conversion therapy is a pseudoscientific, ineffective, and actively harmful practice.

With the Labour Party’s apparent fall into becoming a Reform-esque government with hard-right policies, they are attracting more of a hard-line narrative on underrepresented groups. Studies have shown that those who are anti-immigration tend to be homophobic and transphobic.

Just a few days ago, a man was arrested for allegedly holding a homophobic sign at a anti-immigration protest.

And rather than being justifiably angry at the attack on his family, Keir Starmer needs to take a serious look at what he’s done to create this hostile environment. 

He needs to stop failing queer people, trans people and people of colour – instead, he should be actively trying to fight the violence against us.

If he did, then his shock would be more impactful. 

So no, Prime Minister, we have not ‘moved on from that’.

Many queer people are living the horror and violence to this day, and it’s up to you to stop it.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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