Luton residents debunk 'no-go zone' claims as Tory MP faces backlash

Blake Stephenson, the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, stood at his party's conference on a Monday morning and described Luton as a place where white people do not venture. The town, he said, was dangerous. Parts of it were ghettos. There were no-go zones. He lives fifteen minutes away from Luton, in a village, and has never lived there.

The day after his remarks, Bury Park—the predominantly Asian district he appeared to be describing—hummed with ordinary life. Tanner Ahmed, who runs a fish and chips shop there, was behind his counter. The shop sits on a route that thousands of football fans walk each week when Luton Town plays at home. Ahmed set up the business precisely to serve those crowds, especially during the club's time in the Premier League. He was wrestling with the idea that his regular customers—people of all backgrounds stopping in for food before or after a match—might be afraid to be there.

On Dunstable Road, the main thoroughfare through Bury Park, there was no visible sign of the danger Stephenson had invoked. Restaurants and jewellery stores lined the street. Shops sold pakoras and other snacks. Shoppers of different races moved through the car parks of Sainsbury's and Lidl. A traffic warden, who declined to give their name, said they had always felt perfectly safe. When minor incidents occurred, shopkeepers and members of the public had come to their aid.

Joshua Bozier, a homeless man, said he felt safer in Bury Park than in Luton's town centre. He has lived in many places. He knows people in Bury Park. In the town centre, he said, he has been spat at and urinated on. He called Stephenson's framing nonsense, though he acknowledged that some Islamist activists had demonstrated against a military homecoming parade in 2009—an incident that involved only a tiny fraction of the Muslim community but became a symbol the far right has used ever since.

Luton's history with far-right figures runs deep. Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is from the town. The English Defence League, the street movement he used to build his profile, was launched there. International far-right figures have seized on the town's narrative. The Australian senator Pauline Hanson visited in July for a walkabout filmed by a major Australian television network. According to the 2021 census, 54.8 percent of Luton's population were non-white, making it one of only four places outside London where the majority of residents came from minority groups.

Dr. William Allchorn, an associate professor at Richmond American University and an expert on the far right, explained how Luton became a symbol. The relationship between the EDL and Islamist activists was mutually reinforcing. For people seeking a European example of the supposed consequences of multiculturalism, Luton arrived with ready-made images, personalities, and stories. A series of confrontations happened at precisely the moment when a new form of anti-Muslim street politics was developing. Tommy Robinson, an unusually effective political entrepreneur, turned those local events into a national and eventually international narrative.

Sarah Owen, the Labour MP for Luton North, accused Stephenson of pushing the same far-right rhetoric as Robinson. John Tizard, the police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire and a Labour member, wrote to Stephenson to say his statements were not supported by evidence and resembled the language of far-right agitators seeking to divide communities. Javed Hussain, Luton's independent mayor, said he was baffled by Stephenson's claims as he walked through Bury Park, pointing out Christian, Sikh, and Muslim places of worship and noting the town's regeneration efforts. He described Luton as multicultural, diverse, and vibrant. Research by the council found that community cohesion was strong enough that the town had avoided the fractures that led to violence elsewhere, though officials acknowledged more work was needed—including broadening cultural experiences for school pupils and supporting children from predominantly white council estates.