Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s categorisation of pro-Palestine protests as “un-British” are being criticised by people on the streets of Lewisham, SouthLondonLines found.

Starmer’s statement targeting students has enraged some members of the public and pushed some away from the Labour Party. A 56-year-old teacher, Queenie from Lewisham, has expressed her rage with Starmer and told SLL, “I have been a member of the Labour Party all my life, but no longer.”

Some students at Goldsmiths feel Starmer is trying to silence the voice of young people by urging them away from protests. We interviewed Roland Knowlden, a 30-year-old student at Goldsmiths University, who felt calling people who go to protests Anti-Semitic is a weapon of silence. “To allow them to speak freely is to almost like acknowledge that what they’re doing is wrong.”

The Lewisham public says that Keir Starmer is not doing what he represents as the leader of the Labour Party, and argues his stance as a socialist, which has made the interviewees wonder why they voted for him in the first place. Queenie feels strongly about the PM’s stance: “He is not a socialist; he’s outrageous.”