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Downing Street has robustly defended Keir Starmer’s language on immigration, which has been likened to that used by Enoch Powell, rejecting the direct comparison but saying the prime minister would not “shy away” from direct talk about the subject.
A series of MPs criticised Starmer for his rhetoric when introducing a new policy paper on immigration on Monday, particularly his warning that the UK risked becoming “an island of strangers”, a near-direct echo of language used by Powell in his infamous 1968 “rivers of blood” speech.
Asked about the controversy on Tuesday, Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, said he would not have used the phrase, while defending Starmer’s broader approach.
Alf Dubs, the Labour peer who arrived in the UK as a child refugee fleeing the Nazis, also expressed alarm.
“I’m unhappy that we have senior politicians who use language which is reminiscent of Powell, and I’m sorry that Keir Starmer used some of the phrases that you’ve just quoted,” Dubs told LBC. “It’s not the sort of person he is, and I don’t think it’s what he actually believes in.”
Asked about Starmer’s words in the Senedd, the Welsh Labour leader, Eluned Morgan, said: “I’m not going to use divisive language when it comes to immigration, that’s not the value we have in Welsh Labour.”
A Downing Street source pushed back against the MPs’ criticism of Starmer’s speech, in which he also argued that the Conservatives’ approach to immigration had done “incalculable” damage to the country.
“Tough words and tough policy are required to solve tough problems,” they said. “The Tories left immigration to run completely out of control, with 1 million people coming here in a single year. The electorate want us to get a grip of it. We will, and we won’t apologise for doing so.”
Speaking to LBC, Khan said: “The sort of language I use is different to the language used by others. That’s not the sort of words I would use.”
He added that he thought Starmer was referring to “promises made by Brexiteers” and recent high levels of migration, and not “that contribution we make to this multicultural capital city and country”.
On Monday, several Labour MPs expressed worry at Starmer’s words, with Sarah Owen, the chair of the women and equalities committee, saying: “Chasing the tail of the right risks taking our country down a very dark path.”
Zarah Sultana, who was elected as a Labour MP but now sits as an independent, said Starmer had put lives at risk by echoing Powell’s language, calling this “a disgrace”.
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Starmer’s official spokesperson said it was wrong to compare the prime minister’s warning about “an island of strangers” to Powell’s 1968 remarks that Britons were being “made strangers in their own country”, pointing to how Starmer had also hailed the benefits of migration.
“We completely reject that comparison,” he said. “You heard the PM say in his speech yesterday that migrants make a massive contribution to the country. It is both right and fair to say that migrants have made a massive contribution to our society for generations.
“But it is also right to say that, particularly in the five years between 2019 and 2024, seeing immigration levels quadruple, the previous government lost control of the system.
“We’re not going to shy away from this issue, because the British public rightly expect the government to get control of immigration in a way that the previous government lost control of immigration.”
He added: “The PM has been very clear, Britain is an inclusive country. We have welcomed immigrants for generations, but the level of immigration over the last few years has been too high, and migration must come down.”
Asked if Starmer stood by the words “island of strangers”, the spokesperson replied “yes”, adding: “The prime minister was using his own words to rightly both recognise the contribution migrants have made over generations and to make the point that uncontrolled migration has been too high.”
He condemned Powell, saying that the PM “rejects, in its entirety, previous speeches made by that individual”.
Speaking earlier on Tuesday, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said Starmer’s words were “completely different” to those used by Powell.
“I don’t think it’s right to make those comparisons, I think it’s completely different,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “The prime minister said yesterday, I think almost in the same breath, he talked about the diverse country that we are, and that being part of our strength.
“Everybody always gets caught up in focusing on different phrases … if you look at what the prime minister said yesterday, he talked about people who came after the war to work in the UK, to build some of our services, and how important that was. But he also talked about how immigration has to be properly controlled and managed, and it hasn’t been. I actually think it’s OK to have both those views.”
