Fresh from her own party’s chairman referring to her out-of-the-blue bringing up Burqa bans in Parliament as “dumb”, Sarah Pochin is back appearing to try and offend as many people as possible, this time embracing far-right imagery.
She’s been photographed happily showing off a mug with a fake image that seems to depict Keir Starmer in a Burqa, labelling him “Two-Tier Keir”.
“Two tier” refers to the far-right evidence-free allegation that politicians, the police, or whoever the person using the phrase doesn’t like gives vastly preferential treatment to whichever demographic the person doesn’t happen like. Almost always this is Muslims or people with darker skin. The allegation has been referred to as “racist gaslighting” and “complete nonsense”. If anything, the typical person using it gets the dynamics of policing exactly backwards.
This image was not of her own design. Per Hope not Hate:
The image on the mug has been shared widely in far right circles by extreme figures who use the image to suggest Labour is complicit in the islamification of Britain.
Ali Milani, who is the chair of the Labour Muslim Network, correctly identifies this dated-feeling “obsession” with offending Muslims as dangerous, saying:
Sarah Pochin and Reform UK’s continued obsession with Muslims in Britain is dangerous. From using her first question at PMQs to attack what some Muslim women choose to wear, to now being pictured with a vile Islamophobic mug on the campaign trail, we are seeing a clearer picture of what Reform really stands for.
They are not here to address the real concerns of the British people, but to indulge a divisive fixation with Muslims and migrants.