Backlash to Starmer’s immigration speech ‘overblown’ – minister
Sir Keir’s comments have been likened to Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech.
The backlash to Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on immigration has been “way overblown”, a senior Cabinet minister has said.
The Prime Minister has faced criticism for the language he used in the speech setting out plans to crack down on legal migration into the UK on Monday.
Sir Keir warned the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” if migration controls were not tightened.
Critics, including backbench Labour MPs, have raised concerns about the language, with some comparing it to a similar passage from Enoch Powell’s infamous 1968 “rivers of blood” speech.
“Honestly, I think this has been way overblown,” Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden told LBC.
Asked if he would use the phrase “island of strangers”, Mr McFadden said: “It depends on the context.
“I mean, I might, because what the Prime Minister was talking about was, we need a society with rules. We need a society with responsibilities and obligations.”
Reform UK’s newest MP Sarah Pochin meanwhile said Labour is sounding “more like Reform than Reform”.
“Reform have got them on the run. They know what the electorate want to hear.
“They’ve seen the devastating impact of our policies on their results in these latest set of elections, and so now, yes, they’re sounding more like Reform than Reform are,” she told Times Radio.
But she said the immigration policies announced were “just a bit of bluster, a bit of waffle”.
Downing Street has rejected the comparison with Mr Powell’s speech, in which the then-senior Tory said white British people could find themselves “strangers in their own country” as a result of migration.
Mr Powell was sacked from the Conservative frontbench as a result of making the speech and it outraged his senior colleagues at the time.
Sir Keir’s official spokesman said on Tuesday that the Prime Minister stands by his words.
“The Prime Minister rejects those comparisons and absolutely stands behind the argument he was making that migrants make a massive contribution to our country, but migration needs to be controlled.”
