Southampton’s TEST Labour MP, Satvir Kaur, tweeted her support for the city’s annual Pride festivities, writing: “Happy Pride, Southampton! 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Have the very best time! Sorry not to be there! I love attending but, with my baby due, can’t make this year. I know Pride is a protest, and I will continue to work with charities and everyone else, so all feel welcome in our great city. 💖”. A somewhat un-unifying message.
This year’s Pride celebrations saw the LGBTQIA+ flag painted on the pavement in front of the Bargate and the flag flying proudly above the Bargate. The event was widely attended from the LGBTQIA+ community from the south coast, but Kaur’s recent comments — have become a focal point for criticism.
Earlier in the week, Kaur wrote to a Southampton police superintendent about ongoing demonstrations outside the Highfield House Hotel, which currently houses migrants. In her letter, she voiced concern about “regular demonstrations,” stating: “Whilst I hugely value and will endlessly defend the right to peacefully protest on any subject, I believe these demonstrations are crossing a line, causing a great deal of distress to residents and needlessly subjecting the neighbourhood to frequent disruption, upset and, from my understanding, racist and far-right abuse.”
She went on to accuse protestors of “shocking behaviour,” including setting up an encampment without consent, banging on hotel windows, shouting obscenities, and flying a flag from the hotel’s flagpole. Kaur said she’d received reports of criminality from local councillors and residents, and expressed frustration that police “have done nothing to intervene.”
But for many residents in neighbouring Avondale Court sheltered accommodation, the MP’s comments fell flat. Several have reported feeling overlooked by Kaur, saying the letter only addressed the well-being of hotel residents, not the long-term locals. Residents, many of whom are elderly or use wheelchairs, say they have suffered repeated anti-social behaviour from some living at the hotel. They allege incidents ranging from vandalism and late-night drinking to break-ins and harassment, with little response from police or the council.
“We’ve had doors kicked in, people urinating on our building, and break-ins to our sheds,” one Avondale Court resident said. “We report it, but nothing changes. The CCTV hasn’t worked for years.”
Support for the protests runs deep among some locals, who say demonstrators are “giving them a voice at last.” Many have sat outside to watch, frustrated at what they describe as ongoing neglect from authorities.
“There’s a feeling that demonstrators are able to abuse, harass and intimidate residents without intervention,” Kaur wrote, acknowledging the lack of police action. “Whilst I am grateful to [Chief Inspector] Chris Douglas for his explanation on public safety and police discretion, I remain concerned that this is not having the desired impact or making the community feel safe.”
With tensions high, Kaur’s Pride message — meant to unite the city — instead exposes her strange loyalties again to those outside the community in Southampton.
