A NEW racism row rocked Labour today after blundering party leader Sir Keir Starmer offended the British Bangladeshi community.

The deputy leader of the Labour group on Tower Hamlets council in East London quit the party in outrage at Sir Keir’s remarks to The Sun that “people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed because they’re not being processed.”

Resigning, Sabina Akhtar said: “I was the first female speaker of the council from Bangladeshi origin, and I was a proud Labour Party member, but I cannot be proud anymore when the leader of the party singles out my community and insults my Bangladeshi identity.

“It is clear the direction it is heading is unacceptable to me and my community.”

Apsana Begum, standing for re-election in Poplar and Limehouse, said she “would never stand by and let migrant communities be scapegoated” while Rushanara Ali, under threat in neighbouring Bethnal Green and Stepney after toeing the party line on Israel’s genocide, said she had contacted Sir Keir’s office to complain.

The two seats are the main centres of the Bangladeshi community in Britain.

The Labour leader said he had meant no offence and claimed that he had only cited Bangladesh as “an example of a country that is considered safe as far as asylum is concerned, and one of the countries that’s actually got a returns agreement with us.”

It is the latest problem Sir Keir and his acolytes have stirred up with minority communities during the election, including attempting to oust Diane Abbott as a Labour candidate, on top of his long-standing indulgence of Islamophobia and support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

His comment was revealed after the final leadership debate with Rishi Sunak which featured intemperate rows over the gambling scandal, migration, welfare and council bankruptcy, with the Prime Minister showing scant regard for truth and Labour’s leader concerned not to be outflanked on the right.

Mr Sunak repeatedly accused Labour of “surrendering” on one question after another, which was followed up by a crude advertisement put out by the Tory Party featuring a family with their arms raised in capitulation. 

Most viewers described themselves as “frustrated” by the debate.

Labour failed to deny reports that it had abandoned the fight to stop Nigel Farage from winning in Clacton and had dispatched its candidate to campaign in the Midlands instead.

Sir Keir said that Jovan Owusu-Nepaul was an “excellent” candidate.

Local activists told the Star that Labour wanted a Farage win to disrupt the Tories, while other sources claimed that Mr Owusu-Nepaul had, after a televised encounter with Mr Farage in Clacton, been getting too much media coverage at the leader’s expense.