Keir Starmer issues furious statement after niece and wife ‘beaten by blokes for holding hands’

Warning: this article discusses violence towards the LGBTQ+ community which some readers may find distressing.

Keir Starmer has revealed his furious reaction to learning that his niece and her wife were beaten up for holding hands in public.

Touching on the horrific 2022 incident during an interview with Pete Wicks on his Man Made podcast, the Prime Minister revealed the attack had left him worried about the state of LGBTQ+ rights in the UK.

Explaining that his niece and her wife were attacked within the first year of their marriage, Starmer said: "My niece and her wife have been badly beaten up, in their own town, for holding hands by a group of blokes."

He went on to explain that he was shown photographs of injuries the couple sustained during the attack, which included 'bruising and swelling' to his niece's face.

Keir Starmer recalled the 2022 attack in a new interview (Jacob King / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

"I was absolutely furious. Almost uncontainable fury," he continued.

"The idea that blokes would beat a woman up for holding the hand of her wife. Now?"

The story of Starmer's niece and her wife comes amid concerns that LGBTQ+ rights are 'going backwards' after a growing reports of homophobic attacks up and down the country.

According to statistics released by the House of Commons Hate Crime Statistics report, hate crimes motivated by sexuality increased by 462 percent between 2012 and 2023.

Starmer went on to express his own concerns regarding the future of acceptance in the UK.

"This goes to something I’m really worried about in this country, which is, above all else, a political question: I worry that we’re becoming a country of toxic division," he said.

"We have to reach into that space to ask, what are we about as a country? What does it mean to be British?"

This isn't the first time in which Starmer has spoken about the horrific attack against his niece and her wife, with the 63-year-old previously disclosing the incident in Tom Baldwin's biography Keir Starmer.

He said the attack led to concerns about 'toxic division' in the UK (Getty Stock Images)

Recalling the attack to Baldwin in the book, Starmer said: "They were hand in hand like the newlyweds they are when three men came up to them. These cowards punched Jess many times, fracturing her cheekbone, for no reason except she’s a lesbian."

The biography also revealed that Starmer himself had been attacked as a teenager for trying to defend a gay friend in a Cornwall nightclub during the 1980s.

Starmer's latest comments about his niece follow a period of scrutiny against the Labour party in regard to its stance on trans rights.

Starmer previously welcomed the April 2025 Supreme Court judgement which ruled against trans women being included in the definition of a woman, while the Labour government is yet to fulfil an election promise that a ban on conversion therapy would be trans-inclusive, reports Attitude.