Sir Keir Starmer says Auschwitz visit ‘utterly harrowing’ as he vows to fight ‘poison of antisemitism’
Sir Keir Starmer has called his visit to Auschwitz “utterly harrowing” and said he was determined to fight the “poison of antisemitism”.
The prime minister visited the former Nazi concentration camp where he laid a wreath ahead of the 80th anniversary of its liberation, during a trip to Poland to meet its political leaders.
After he and his wife Victoria, who is Jewish, visited the site, Sir Keir said: “Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of what I have seen in this place. It is utterly harrowing. The mounds of hair, the shoes, the suitcases, the names and details, everything that was so meticulously kept, except for human life.
“As I stood by the train tracks at Birkenau, looking across that cold, vast expanse, I felt a sickness, an air of desolation, as I tried to comprehend the enormity of this barbarous, planned, industrialised murder: a million people killed here for one reason, simply because they were Jewish.”
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Historians estimate about 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in Auschwitz over less than five years as part of the Nazi’s extermination plan. The camp was liberated by the Soviet army on 27 January 1945.
Sir Keir, who was on his first trip there, said it was Lady Starmer’s second visit but it was “no less harrowing than the first time she stepped through that gate and witnessed the depravity of what happened here”.
He added that their visit truly showed him how “this was not the evil deeds of a few bad individuals, it took a collective endeavour by thousands of ordinary people… in the hatred of difference”.
“The lessons of this darkest of crimes are the ultimate warning to humanity of where prejudice can lead,” he said.
Sir Keir and Lady Starmer laid a wreath at the concentration camp. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
The prime minister warned of the rising threat of antisemitism in recent years, including in the UK.
“The truth that I have seen here today will stay with me for the rest of my life,” he said.
“So too, will my determination to defend that truth, to fight the poison of antisemitism and hatred in all its forms, and to do everything I can to make ‘never again’ mean what it says, and what it must truly mean: never again.”
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Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Sir Keir travelled to Poland from Kyiv after meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy there in his first trip to Ukraine since becoming prime minister.
He told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, in Kyiv, the UK will play its “full part” in peacekeeping in Ukraine, including sending troops.
However, former senior military leaders have warned this may not be possible due to the army being at its smallest size for 200 years.
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Starmer and Zelenskyy lay flowers at memorial
In Poland, he is expected to discuss the new UK-Poland treaty with his counterpart Donald Tusk, which will support both countries working together to protect Europe from Russian aggression and work together to tackle people smuggling gangs.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the charity was “grateful to Sir Keir for leading the way in ensuring that the horrors of the past are always remembered”.
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Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell tells Nigel Farage ‘kneejerk’ migrant deportation plan won’t solve problem
The Archbishop of York has told Sky News the UK should resist Reform’s “kneejerk” plan for the mass deportation of migrants, telling Nigel Farage he is not offering any “long-term solution”.
Stephen Cottrell said in an interview with Trevor Phillips he has “every sympathy” with people who are concerned about asylum seekers coming to the country illegally.
But he criticised the plan announced by Reform on Tuesday to deport 600,000 people, which would be enabled by striking deals with the Taliban and Iran, saying it will not “solve the problem”.
Mr Cottrell is currently acting head of the Church of England while a new Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen.
Pic: Jacob King/PA Wire
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell in 2020.
File pic: PA
Phillips asked him: “What’s your response to the people who are saying the policy should be ‘you land here, unlawfully, you get locked up and you get deported straight away. No ifs, no buts’?”
Mr Cottrell said he would tell them “you haven’t solved the problem”, adding: “You’ve just put it somewhere else and you’ve done nothing to address the issue of what brings people to this country.
“And so if you think that’s the answer, you will discover in due course that all you have done is made the problem worse.
“Don’t misunderstand me, I have every sympathy with those who find this difficult, every sympathy – as I do with those living in poverty.
“But… we should actively resist the kind of isolationist, short term kneejerk ‘send them home’.”
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What do public make of Reform’s plans?
Nigel Farage at the launch of Reform UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers. Pic: PA
Asked if that was his message to the Reform leader, he said: “Well, it is. I mean, Mr Farage is saying the things he’s saying, but he is not offering any long-term solution to the big issues which are convulsing our world, which lead to this. And, I see no other way.”
You can watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News from 8.30am
Mr Farage, the MP for Clacton, was asked at a news conference this week what he would say if Christian leaders opposed his plan.
“Whoever the Christian leaders are at any given point in time, I think over the last decades, quite a few of them have been rather out of touch, perhaps with their own flock,” he said.
“We believe that what we’re offering is right and proper, and we believe for a political party that was founded around the slogan of family, community, country that we are doing right by all of those things, with these plans we put forward today.”
Sky News has approached Mr Farage for comment.
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