Politician Jake Richards

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been criticised for allegedly echoing the language of the far right in a speech announcing the overhaul of the country’s immigration policy.

Speaking on Monday, less than two weeks after the anti-immigration Reform UK party swept to victory in local elections, Starmer vowed to end “Britain’s failed experiment in open borders” and to tighten the system so that it was “controlled, selective and fair”.

The UK leader also promised that the number of immigrants entering the country would fall “significantly”, but he did not give specific numbers.

Starmer’s most controversial comment was his warning that without comprehensive change, the UK could become an “island of strangers

“In a diverse nation like ours … we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together,” Starmer said, while setting out policies including a plan to raise the level of English required to apply for a visa.

Critics, including members of his own party, said the rhetoric was reminiscent of a line in Enoch Powell’s infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech in 1968, when the politician warned that white Britons could find themselves “strangers in their own country”.

Zarah Sultana, a politician who was recently suspended from the Labour party for voting against the government, was among those who condemned Starmer

“The prime minister imitating Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech is sickening,” Sultana said.

“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,” she added.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Nadia Whittome also accused the prime minister of adopting the language of the far right.

“The step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous,” she wrote on X

“Migrants are our neighbours, friends and family. To suggest that Britain risks becoming ‘an island of strangers’ because of immigration mimics the scaremongering of the far-right.”

Starmer gets backed

But many in the party backed the UK prime minister’s words. Politician Jake Richards said: “Millions of people across the country have similar concerns. This theme must be central to missions across immigration, employment, work and tackling neighbourhood deprivation.”

The UK government’s new white paper on immigration included a decision to end the social care visa, which supplies the struggling care sector with international staff.

Overseas recruitment was a “lifeline” for the sector, according to Martin Green, chief executive of industry body Care England

“Taking it away now, with no warning, no funding and no alternative, is not just short-sighted – it’s cruel,” he said.

Previous British leaders have promised drastic curbs to annual immigration, with Tory PM David Cameron promising to drive it below 100,000.

Under successive Conservative governments, this did not happen. In the year to June 2023, net migration rose to 900,000, a spike caused in part by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war in Ukraine and a democratic crackdown in Hong Kong.

In the year to June 2024, net immigration to the UK was 728,000.