Labour peer Margaret Hodge has called on the government to “change the discourse” around immigration in the face of a growing threat from Reform.
Speaking to LabourList to mark 15 years since she successfully fought off a challenge from the BNP in her former constituency of Barking, Hodge said that the “extreme right” had captured the agenda around immigration and called on the party to “have the guts” to alter the conversation on the subject.
She said: “I’ve just come out of six months of pretty intensive hospital care. I went in on a Sunday to have an ultrasound scan on my kidney. Two people saw me – one was Nigerian and the other Bangladeshi.
“Politics is often just about voice, and we’ve got the extreme right at the moment who have captured that agenda and we’ve got to have the guts to change the discourse.”
READ MORE: Runcorn blame game begins – why did Labour lose?
She also warned that if the party does not learn the right lessons from her ‘Battle for Barking’, “we won’t defend against the extreme right”.
“Barking was just like the Red Wall, we were just there a little earlier,” Baroness Hodge said.
LabourList’s full interview with Baroness Hodge will be published tomorrow.
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Read our coverage of the fallout from the 2025 local election results:
- Council by council results: Labour gains and losses – and its position in each mayor race
- Starmer: ‘Labour must go further and faster to deliver after Runcorn defeat’
- Runcorn blame game begins – why did Labour lose?
- ‘Labour has lost in Runcorn – here are the eight things the party should do now‘
- MPs who could lose their seat on Runcorn by-election swing to Reform
- ‘Results so far say one thing: voters think change isn’t coming fast enough’
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