FACT CHECK: Did Keir Starmer Tell UK Res­i­dents To Leave The Coun­try If They Dis­agree With Labour Par­ty Poli­cies?

A post shared on X claims British Prime Min­is­ter Keir Starmer told U.K. res­i­dents to leave the coun­try if they dis­agree with deci­sions made by the Labour Par­ty. 

So @Keir_Starmer says that if we don’t like what @UKLabour are doing, we can leave!!!!

WTAF?!

Does this show­er of shite under­stand that the fun­da­men­tal role of the gov­ern­ment is to serve the peo­ple!!??

Sir Keir, if we don’t like what you’re doing, you’ll be the one to leave.…

— Andrea 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@andie1105) Decem­ber 1, 2024

Ver­dict: False

The com­ment was tak­en out of con­text.

Fact Check:

Starmer said Mon­day that show­ing increased sup­port for Ukraine could aid in its peace talks and could poten­tial­ly lead to a nego­ti­at­ed end of the war, accord­ing to Reuters. He warned that a Russ­ian vic­to­ry could put Europe at a great risk and all Euro­pean nations have a “shared future,” the out­let report­ed.

An X post claims Starmer urged cit­i­zens of the Unit­ed King­dom to leave the coun­try if they dis­agree with the Labour Party’s deci­sions. The post shared the claim in text and end­ed the post with “#LabourOut.” (RELATED: Did British Prime Min­is­ter Keir Starmer Claim To Make Pork For His Jew­ish Wife?)

“So @Keir_Starmer says that if we don’t like what @UKLabour are doing, we can leave!!!! WTAF?! Does this show­er of shite under­stand that the fun­da­men­tal role of the gov­ern­ment is to serve the peo­ple!!??” the post reads. “Sir Keir, if we don’t like what you’re doing, you’ll be the one to leave. YOU work for us, not the oth­er way around #LabourOut.”

Starmer’s com­ment has been tak­en out of con­text and mis­con­strued. The state­ment was orig­i­nal­ly made dur­ing a speech in Feb­ru­ary 2023, which can be seen on YouTube. In con­text, Starmer was speak­ing about the party’s steps tak­en to reduce anti­semitism, and he urged those who dis­agree with these changes to leave the par­ty, not the coun­try. The con­text starts at about 4:05 in the video. 

“It [the par­ty] will nev­er again be brought to its knees by racism or big­otry,” he says in the address. “If you don’t like that, if you don’t like the changes that we’ve made, I say, the door is open and you can leave.” He then invites those who believe they can help the coun­try become a bet­ter place to “come in.”

Starmer was still Labour Par­ty leader at this time and did not become prime min­is­ter until July 4, 2024, accord­ing to Bri­tan­ni­ca.

Check Your Fact reached out to a Starmer spokesper­son for com­ment.