The prime minister has revealed that Sir Keir Starmer’s niece and her wife were beaten up for holding hands in public.
Speaking on Pete Wicks’s Man Made podcast, the Labour leader expressed his concern for the UK’s future following the homophobic attack.
Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes have been escalating for years, with sexual orientation hate crimes rising by 462% between 2012 and 2023.
Among the victims is Starmer’s own niece, who was attacked within a year of marrying her wife a few years ago.
The PM recalled that his family’s ‘first gay wedding’ was a day to remember.
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‘Within a year, my niece and her wife have been badly beaten up, in their own town, for holding hands by a group of blokes,’ he told Wicks.
‘My niece showed me the photographs – she had bruising and swelling to her face. And I was absolutely furious. Almost uncontainable fury.’
Starmer added: ‘The idea that blokes would beat a woman up for holding the hand of her wife. Now?’
To the prime minister, the incident touched on his fears of the growing ‘toxic division’ shattering the country and what it means to be ‘British’.
‘That individual act, in relation to my niece,’ Starmer continued, ‘I thought the days of beating up people because they were gay were well behind us.
‘I’m not being naive – I know it happens all the time – but it was brought home to me, my family, being shown to me on a phone in my sister’s living room.’
Figures shared last year showed that homophobic hate crimes fell 8% last year to 22,2839, though they remain far higher compared to five years ago.
The rise in violence is one of the reasons the UK has gone from the most LGBTQ+ friendly country in Europe to 22nd.
Another major reason, queer campaigners have repeatedly told Metro, is the government’s response to trans rights.
Starmer has flip-flopped over whether trans women are women and trans men are men.
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He also welcomed a court ruling in April that ‘woman’ refers to ‘biological sex’ under anti-discrimination law, in a blow to trans rights.
A ban on conversion therapy – which Labour previously pledged would be trans-inclusive – has also yet to be drafted or put into law.
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