Sadiq Khan Leads Labour Backlash Over Starmer’s ‘Enoch Powell’ Speech

Sir Sadiq Khan has distanced himself from Sir Keir Starmer after Left-wing MPs compared the Prime Minister’s remarks on immigration to Enoch Powell.

Sir Sadiq, the Labour Mayor of London, said Sir Keir’s warning that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” because of mass immigration “aren’t words that I would use”.

The Prime Minister made the comment as he launched the Government’s new plan to reduce the number of migrants coming to Britain.

He faced a backlash from some MPs who accused him of “imitating” or “reflecting the language” of Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech.

Sir Sadiq was asked during a phone-in on LBC on Tuesday how he felt about the Prime Minister’s “island of strangers” comment as well as the premier’s description of recent years of high immigration as a “squalid chapter”.

He said: “Well, those aren’t words that I would use. I read the white paper and I understand the context of the white paper and those aren’t words that I would use.”

He added: “If you listen to the Prime Minister’s speech he also talked about diversity being a strength.”

Powell, the Conservative cabinet minister who died in 1998, said in his 1968 speech that the native British population had “found themselves made strangers in their own country” because of immigration.

Olivia Blake, the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam, suggested the phrase could “risk legitimising the same far-Right violence we saw in last year’s summer riots”.

Zarah Sultana, a former Labour MP who sits as an independent after a rebel vote on the two-child benefit cap, posted on X: “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.”

John McDonnell, the former Labour shadow chancellor who also currently sits as an independent MP, said it was “shockingly divisive” that the Prime Minister had “referred to ‘an island of strangers’, reflecting the language of Enoch Powell”.

Sir Keir ‘stands by his words’

But Downing Street said Sir Keir rejected the suggestion he had echoed Powell in his speech, and stood by his words.

Discussing the reaction linking Sir Keir to Powell, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We completely reject that comparison.”

Asked if the Prime Minister was worried about the language he used, the spokesman said: “Absolutely, 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.”

Asked to confirm that Sir Keir stood by his comments that the UK did risk becoming an “island of strangers” without action on immigration, the spokesman replied: “Yes.”

Jacqui Smith, the former home secretary and Labour grandee who currently serves as skills minister, said it was “wrong” to make the comparison.

She told the BBC’s Newsnight programme: “Labour and Labour governments have always listened to people in terms of their concerns about their security, the opportunities that they want to have for themselves and their children.

“And when we see something that we understand that people believe is unfair then we are going to take action on that, that is what the British people would expect us to do, that is what Labour governments do.”

Yvette Cooper argued that what Sir Keir had said was “completely different” to Powell.

The Home Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “You wouldn’t be surprised to hear that I agree with Jacqui Smith… that I don’t think it is right to make those comparisons.

“It is completely different and the Prime Minister said yesterday, I think almost in the same breath, talked about the diverse country that we are and that being part of our strength.”

‘Nations depend on rules’

Sir Keir told a Downing Street press conference as he launched the Government’s immigration white paper: “Let me put it this way: nations depend on rules – fair rules. Sometimes they’re written down, often they’re not, but either way, they give shape to our values.

“They guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe to one another.

“Now, in a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more important. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”

Powell said in 1968: “But while, to the immigrant, entry to this country was admission to privileges and opportunities eagerly sought, the impact upon the existing population was very different.

“For reasons which they could not comprehend, and in pursuance of a decision by default, on which they were never consulted, they found themselves made strangers in their own country.”

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, claimed the UK was “already an island of strangers”.

Asked what he made of the Prime Minister’s language, Mr Jenrick told Times Radio: “I think it’s true. In fact, I think in some places we already are. Aggressive levels of mass migration have made us more divided.”