Jeremy Corbyn criticises Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ speech at festival

Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Sir Keir Starmer for using the phrase “island of strangers” in a major immigration announcement.

The former Labour leader, now an independent MP after he lost the party whip, publicly challenged the Prime Minister’s language on Friday.

Speaking at the Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park, south London, Mr Corbyn said: “Let’s hear no more of this nonsense spoken by some about this being a country of strangers.

“Let’s hear no more of the repetition of what the wretched Enoch Powell said when I was a young person in the 1960s.

“Our community, our strength, our joy, our lives, our hope is our diversity, is our different backgrounds.”

He added: “That’s what makes London a very special place.”

Sir Keir, Mr Corbyn’s successor as Labour leader, suggested the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” if efforts to tackle migration and integration were not stepped up.

Critics compared the language with that of the Conservative politician Enoch Powell, who in an inflammatory address in 1968 known as the “rivers of blood” speech, claimed that white British people would become “strangers in their own country” in the future.

Elsewhere in his speech on the stage, Mr Corbyn called for an end to all British arms sales to Israel, and urged those attending the festival to join anti-war rallies.

He said: “This country, Britain, has supplied weapons and parts for the F-35 jets that are used to bomb Gaza.

“So when we have the demonstrations in support of the Palestine people – please be there, raise your voice. It matters by giving inspiration to those people going through the most ghastly times of their lives.”

In what appeared to be a further broadside at his former colleagues in the Labour Government, Mr Corbyn suggested ministers should hike taxes on the very rich.

“You can’t achieve equality and justice if you extol the virtues of billionaires and do nothing about taking money off them to pay for the decent services for the many,” he said.

Elsewhere at the festival, Irish rap trio Kneecap performed just days after one of their members was charged with a terror offence.

Liam O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year, the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday.

The Wide Awake Festival is one of several taking place in Brockwell Park over the next few weeks.

Some local residents are unhappy with the damage the events cause to the park, and the large area of the green open space they take up over the course of a month.

They successfully brought legal action against Lambeth Council over the use of parts of the park for the festivals, in a challenge which claimed the authority had bypassed the full planning process.

The High Court ruled the council had acted “irrationally”, but the events have continued despite this, after Lambeth received fresh a planning application.