Labour minister slammed for ‘sinister’ claim that idyllic vision of British countryside is a ‘far-right fantasy’

A Labour minister has been slammed for her “sinister” claim that the idea of Britain based on pubs, warm ale and black Labradors is a “far-right fantasy that never really existed”.

Speaking to GB News, political commentator Benedict Spence described Nature Minister Jenny Riddell-Carpenter’s remarks as an attempt to “sideline a way of life”.

Ms Riddell-Carpenter warned attendees at a fringe event at the Labour conference in Liverpool that she lies “awake at night” at how the so-called “far right” would weaponise a “nostalgic vision" of the countryside at the next election.

“If we don't make the case for nature, for rural communities and what we believe rural communities look like, I do believe that the next election is going to be fought on a battle line of nature and rural affairs.

“There'll be the far-right deciding and determining what that looks like. It'll be a vision, a nostalgic vision of Britain, that never really existed.

“It'll be that warm ale, a black Labrador by your feet in a pub that doesn't exist, and with symbolism of fox hunting all around them; it'll be a very far-right nostalgic vision of Britain that we don't want to have, and never really existed,” the MP for Suffolk Coastal said.

“I think that this is all rather sinister,” Mr Spence warned, reacting to the comments.

“It sounds to me as if this is a deliberate policy to effectively sideline that way of life,” he said.

The commentator said Ms Riddell-Carpenter’s comments were particularly troubling given the protests that have erupted in “Crowborough, Piddington, and elsewhere”.

He was referencing the protests of the small rural communities, who are resisting plans to house thousands of migrants in disused military sites near their communities.

Mr Spence continued: “The impacts of policy decisions made in major urban centres are being visited on rural communities.

“To have a minister going: ‘Yeah, but that didn't really exist anywhere’… It's not something that we really want.”

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To that end, the political commentator questioned what exactly was so problematic about that vision of the countryside.

“Let's say that Jenny Carpenter is right. Let's say it never existed. Why can't we aspire to have it in the future?

“We're not all sat here going: ‘Oh, do you remember the good old days? I really yearn to live in the past when everything was great.’

“I actually tend to think most British people are forward-facing. They want to move toward a situation that is better than what they have now.

“So let's say that it never existed. Let's say that it's a fantasy. Why can't we pursue the fantasy?

“Why can't we have the communities centred around the pub, the church, the village green where everybody knows their neighbours, where they can leave their front doors unlocked? Where people don't live in fear for their lives.

“I don't see why that's a bad thing to aspire to. Do you?”