Keir Starmer says he was left “absolutely furious” after his niece and her wife were subjected to a homophobic attack. 

The UK prime minister revealed that his niece and her wife were victims of a homophobic hate crime during an appearance on Pete Wicks’ Man Made podcast..

Asked when he was last angry, Starmer cited the incident, which occurred within a year of his niece and her wife being married. He shared that the ceremony was “the first gay wedding” he had taken his kids to and was “fantastic”. 

@pinknews Keir Starmer has revealed his neice and her wife we victims of a homophobic hate crime. Appearing  on the Pete Wicks' Man Made podcast, Starmer was asked when the last time he was angry was.He responded, talking about the incident: "To have my own niece beaten up in the street for being gay. I thought we’d moved on from that. I was absolutely furious, I thought the days of beating up people because they were gay were well behind us." #KeirStarmer #ukpolitics #labourparty #petewicks #lgbtqia ♬ ■ News News-Drone-IT-AI(963995) – ImoKenpi-Dou

He recalled: “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…

“I was absolutely furious,” Starmer said, after sharing that his niece had showed him photos of her bruised and swollen face. 

“I thought the days of beating up people because they were gay were well behind us,” he said.  

The prime minister continued: “This goes to something I’m really worried about in this country, which is, a political question above all else, which is I worry that we’re becoming a country of toxic division. Or at least that’s where some people want to take us.” 

In June, Starmer urged public bodies currently not enforcing the Supreme Court’s gender ruling to bar trans people from single-sex spaces “as soon as possible”. The court verdict, handed down in April, deemed that the legal definition of the protected characteristic of “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act referred to “biological sex” only, thus excluding trans people.

Despite his claims that he is concerned about “toxic division”, Starmer has previously been criticised for flip-flopping on trans rights, having changed his mind to say that he no longer believed trans women are women, and trans men are men.

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