Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of quoting Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech by voices by within and outside the Labour Party.
On Monday, the prime minister announced government plans to significantly reduce immigration into the UK as part of policies laid out in a White Paper.
He said the plans will see the country “finally take back control of our borders” after a “squalid chapter” under the Tories.
The White Paper will include plans to ban recruitment of care workers from overseas, tighten access to skilled worker visas and raise the costs to employers in an effort to curb near record net migration.
However, many have criticised the government for the policies, accusing them of pandering to Reform and the right.
In particular, one part of Starmer’s speech was called out by figures both within and outside Labour.
Starmer said that without tighter rules on immigration, Britain ‘risks becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.’
Many highlighted the similarity between this line and one from Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech, in which he said “they found themselves made strangers in their own country.”
MP Zarah Sultana, who currently has the whip suspended by Labour, made this comparison in a post on X.
She wrote: “The Prime Minister imitating Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech is sickening. That speech fuelled decades of racism and division. Echoing it today is a disgrace. It adds to anti-migrant rhetoric that puts lives at risk. Shame on you, Keir Starmer.”
Meanwhile, Labour MP Nadia Whittome said the prime minister’s words “mimic the scaremongering of the far-right.”
A number of other people criticised the PM for his words, also making the Enoch Powell comparison.
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