Sir Salman, who wrote The Satanic Verses in 1988, told LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr: ‘[The UK is] shrinking also, not just physically, not economically, but also in our estimation of ourselves.
“I mean, there is a sense in which it needed to happen, because England was always this small island which ended up somehow accidentally ruling a very large chunk of the world.
“And the end of the Empire needed some rethinking, and so there’s an extent to which that’s okay, that it needed to happen, but the rise of prejudice is what’s shocking to me.”
When asked whether whether he believed casual racism had reemerged in 2025, Sir Salman told Andrew: “I think to some degree, yes.
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“I can remember having some of that casual racism aimed at me when I was at boarding school. And it goes very deep. You never entirely forget it. You get past it and it doesn’t bother me anymore, but I’d never forgotten it.”
During a winding interview, Sir Salman also admitted he was shocked at the way in with Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has lost all momentum since its landslide election victory in July 2024.
When asked whether he was disappointed by Labour, he said: “Yes. I think I would still, if I was in a position to vote, that’s where I would cast my vote.
“But I think it’s stunning how rapidly this government, which arrived with a huge landslide victory, has lost all that momentum. That’s pretty impressive to be become so unpopular so fast.”
Sir Salman has faced several threats since he wrote his seminal 1988 novel, having faced a fatwa from the Ayatollah of Iran after its publication.
The author, 77, was attacked by Hadi Matar in 2022 when the knifeman stabbed him 15 times in the face and body.
The attack, for which Matar was jailed for 25 years, left him blind in one eye.
