Dawn Butler

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I should know better. I will have to google all their constituencies. Anyway, we have some amazing founding members of the black caucus, and that will go from strength to strength. Among all the positivity, I am tired. When we see 110,000 people marching in London led by a far-right racist, it is absolutely exhausting. It is triggering, too, and not just for me, but for my parents’ generation and for everybody who has ever suffered racism. It is true that not everybody on the march was racist, but there definitely were a hell of a lot of racists on that march. When people say, “I want to get my country back,” I wonder, “Back from whom?” There is a South African calling the shots. The racism that has increased and escalated since March is not even new; it is quite old, and it is from the apartheid era and slavery. I will read the House just a few of the racist messages that have been sent to me. One said: “You’re not English and you don’t belong in the country, deport yourself”. ChadKing97 said: “There is no ‘our’ you african monkey”. RojamWej said: “Pipe down monkey”. Bahicks1905 said: “Fuck off you ape.” Another one said: “You are going home. You know it, we know it.” It just gets worse and worse, and it is not new. They have not even upgraded their racism. It is just old, pathetic and annoying, but it is scary.