Jeremy Corbyn hasn’t held back in a scathing takedown of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, accusing him of echoing dangerous rhetoric during a live interview on LBC. In just eight words, the former Labour leader made his feelings crystal clear: “Straight out of the Enoch Powell playbook.”
His comments come after Starmer warned the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without tougher immigration rules — a line that’s caused a stir across the political spectrum. The PM insists he wants to “take back control of our borders” and believes migrants should be expected to learn English if they want to remain in the country, reported The Express.
But Corbyn, clearly furious, drew a sharp comparison to Powell’s infamous “rivers of blood” speech, which warned of Britain becoming unrecognisable to its white population. Corbyn said: “Starmer’s speech about people being foreigners, or unwelcome in their own land and so on is straight out of the Enoch Powell playbook.”
He added that Starmer’s remarks send the wrong message to the very people who keep the country running. “What’s the message that’s been given to the people who’ve come to this country, work in health, work in education, work in transport, work in care, particularly?” he said. “There’s 130,000 vacancies in the care sector already – what’s [Yvette Cooper] going to do about those?”
Corbyn, who represents a neighbouring constituency to Starmer, pointed out that the areas they serve are strikingly similar – multicultural and diverse, where people “generally get along quite well together.” The implication? The PM’s words don’t reflect the communities he claims to speak for.
Starmer, in an interview with The Guardian, tried to strike a balance, saying: “Migrants make a massive contribution to the UK, and I would never denigrate that.” But he doubled down on his belief that integration starts with language, adding: “The public expect that people who come here should be expected to learn the language and integrate.”
Not everyone in Labour is buying it. Sarah Owen, who chairs the party’s women and equalities committee, also hit back. “Chasing the tail of the right risks taking our country down a very dark path,” she warned. “The best way to avoid becoming an ‘island of strangers’ is investing in communities to thrive – not pitting people against each other.”
With pressure mounting from both inside and outside the party, Starmer’s choice of words may have opened a rift that’s far from healing.
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