James Cleverly takes aim at David Lammy over Labour’s focus on ‘identity politics’: ‘It’s all about him!’

James Cleverly has launched a scathing attack on Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Labour’s desire for “tokenistic identity politics”, claiming the minister “made it all about him” during his recent trip to the UN General Assembly.

During his speech to delegates at the United Nations’ HQ in New York City, Lammy focussed his statement on his African heritage and how his ancestors “rose up and fought in a great rebellion of the enslaved”.

Addressing the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Lammy declared: “I say to the Russian representative, on his phone as I speak, that I stand here also as a black man whose ancestors were taken in chains from Africa, at the barrel of a gun to be enslaved.

“Imperialism. I know it when I see it, and I will call it out for what it is.”

Hitting out at Lammy, Conservative leadership hopeful James Cleverly claimed the Labour Party are “bruised” by the diversity of the outgoing Tory cabinet, and only care about “tokenistic identity politics”.

Cleverly told GB News: “It’s all about David, isn’t it? I cannot believe the UK Foreign Secretary went to the United Nations in a debate about Ukraine, and somehow managed to make it about himself.

“The Labour Party are really bruised by the fact that it was the Conservatives who had the first, second and third female prime minister, the first Asian prime minister, the first black foreign secretary, the first Muslim Home secretary.

“They hate it because they like that tokenistic identity politics – we just get on with the job.”

In a scathing swipe at Lammy’s role as Foreign Secretary, Cleverly compared the Labour minister’s efforts to his own, claiming that unlike the Tories, he is “trying to make it about identity politics” rather than focussing on the key global issues.

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Cleverly fumed: “David is desperately trying to make it about identity politics. When I was foreign secretary, I made it about the UK’s national interest on the world stage.

“That’s the difference between saying stuff and doing stuff – I’ve always focused on doing stuff rather than just saying stuff.”

When asked for his verdict on Labour’s first few months in Government, Cleverly claimed Sir Keir Starmer has been a “disappointment” to Britain and that the Prime Minister “does not have a vision” for the country.

Cleverly explained: “They have been such a disappointment, and the lesson we need to take from that is that they went into this general election trying to say as little as possible.

“They made no commitments, they didn’t have a vision, they don’t have a philosophy, they don’t have an ethos, and therefore they’re lost in government, and their behaviour is hypocritical.”

He added: “If Wet Streeting is genuinely able to reform the National Health Service, I think that’s something we should look at. If they are able to drive welfare reform, that’s something we should look at.

“But the fact is, at the moment, they have just been such a massive disappointment.”