Starmer’s ‘far-right ban’ won’t fix his tattered image

During a speech on 11 May, Keir Starmer (PM-for-now) boasted about blocking “far right agitators” from entering the country. Labour has in fact blocked the visas of seven individuals who were planning to attend ‘Unite the Kingdom,’ a far-right rally happening on 16 May. Among them are two prominent MAGA figures. Criticising his political opponents for spreading “more division” and “pointing at Britain’s problems,” Starmer stated:

That politics is with us now. And you’ll see it again on Saturday at a march designed to confront and intimidate this diverse city [London] and this diverse country. That is why this labour government will block far right agitators from travelling to Britain for that event.

Because we will not allow people to come to the UK… and spread hate on our streets. This is nothing less than a battle for the soul of our nation.

Don’t mind the hypocrisy

When the Canary reported on Starmer’s speech yesterday, we couldn’t help but point out the glaring hypocrisy. First and foremost, Labour has been cribbing its immigration policy from the far-right handbook. As such, the party is clearly happy to stoke division when it’s politically expedient for Starmer.

Likewise, boasting about blocking far-right agitators was rich, coming from a man who actively fought to get racist, Islamophobic Maccabees fans into the country. Again, the deciding factor is purely whether or not Starmer thinks fighting the far right will help its image. Absolute chancers, the lot of them.

But we digress. The ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march Starmer’s referring to is another event organised by Tommy (the-fascist) Robinson. For last year’s version of the rally, an estimated 100,000 racist scum took to London’s streets, hurling bigoted profanities.

Joey Mannarino

So, who exactly is it that Starmer and home secretary Mahmood have chosen to block this year? So far, we know that the Home Office has blocked seven visas. Five of the names remain unknown to the public. However, the two known figures are Joey Mannarino and Valentina Gomez, both MAGA talking heads. A government spokesperson stated that their right of entry was revoked because their presence isn’t “conducive to the public good”.

And looking at the track records of the two named far-right agitators, we’re inclined to agree.

At a Britain First ‘March for Remigration’ in 2025, Mannario gave a rambling speech in front of a backdrop image of himself and Donald Trump. When he later tweeted a recording, he urged viewers to:

deport the parasites who are raping their way through America, Europe and the United Kingdom.

Obviously, he didn’t include Trump among those rapists. Instead, as Hope Not Hate has reported:

Donald Trump was held civilly liable for the sexual abuse of journalist E. Jean Carrol. In response, Mannarino chose not to stand with victims of abuse, and instead wrote in a since-deleted tweet that he “will never believe a victim of rape again in my life no matter the verdict in court” and that “all rape cases have just become fake to me”.

Yeah, that’s not conductive to the public good, right there.

Valentina Gomez

Meanwhile, Gomez has a similarly charming track record. Speaking at last September’s Unite the Kingdom march, the Islamophobic influencer said:

England, they took your guns, they took your swords, and they raped your women. You have nothing else to lose, but there’s still hope. You are still the majority. So you either fight for this nation or you let all of these rapist Muslims and corrupt politicians take over.

She told the attending police officers that:

I need you to stop following orders because you know you are being told to look the other way while your country is being raped into submission.

Obviously Gomez wasn’t aware the Met were already way ahead of her. In fact, they didn’t even bother to use facial recognition software at the far-right rally. By way of contrast, they did deploy that same tech at Notting Hill Carnival. We wonder what the difference might be?

The Home Office actually made the decision to block Gomez from entering the UK on May 16 back in April. At the time, a government source said that:

While we recognise the democratic right that people must be free to peacefully express their views, this does not include promoting hatred and extremist views.

After finding out about the ban, Gomez took to Twitter, posting:

I’m coming to England on a boat. They can try to ban me, but they cannot ban the TRUTH. See you May 16th.

Funny how they do mind arriving illegally on a boat when it’s the far right, isn’t it?

Don’t get us wrong — we’re absolutely thrilled that scum like Joey Mannarino and Valentina Gomez are barred from entering the UK. However, it’d be lovely if Starmer could manage to carry that same sentiment through all of his decisions, rather than merely when he thinks it’ll look good for his (absolute rock-bottom) image.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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