The speech was confronted with recoil because some claimed it was racially charged Rivers of Blood Speech held by Henoch Powell in 1968. The speech by Powell led him to be removed as a shadow defense secretary after he took a position against immigration and the growing number of non-Dutch citizens.
In his speech, Powell said, stating the Roman poet Virgil,
About 74 percent of the British in 1968 agreed with Powell and his anti -immigrant proposals, but Starmer’s speech has not been treated so favorably – even by his own party members.
Labor MP Zarah Sultana said to X and said that starmer who used Powell’s speech was “sickening”.
But why does Starmer’s speech affect Powell’s and how similar are they?
Comparisons between the speech of Keir Starmer and the speech of Enoch Powell
The words that caused the most recoil were starmer who said that without waiting immigration, the UK runs the risk of becoming an ‘island of strangers’.
The expression has drawn similarities with Powell’s claim that British found themselves in 1968 as “strangers in their own country”.
When responding to the allegations of comparisons, starmer The Guardian told That “migrants make a huge contribution to the UK, and I would never denigrate that”.
However, some critics remain furious about the prime minister’s anti-immigrant rhetoric who suggested that a multicultural Great Britain could be at the expense of society.
Critics of Starmer’s speech have also found a mistake in his implication that migrants must assimilate with British culture, language and values. He unveiled his party’s plans to ensure that new migrants “learn [English] Language and integrate ”.
He said: “Great -Britain is an inclusive and tolerant country, but the public expects that people who come here are expected to learn and integrate the language.” Sir Keir also said that a visa for trained employees is a higher salary threshold or qualification at graduate level, as well as an English standard that is equivalent to an A level.
In a post on X, the prime minister repeated his position:
It is this sentiment of homogenization with the British culture in which critics attract parallels to Powell.
In his speech, Powell said about Sikh communities that wanted to maintain religious habits: “Working in Great Britain, in particular in public services, they must be willing to accept the general terms and conditions of their employment.
“To claim special common rights (or should you say rides?) Leads a dangerous fragmentation within society. This communalism is a cancer; whether it is practiced by one or the other color, it must be strongly convicted.”
Although different statements, observers have said that the Prime Minister resistes anti-migrant sessions and feeding racist and xenophobic ideology.
To X, many users take a starmer to “suddenly paddle an anti-immigration rhetoric” to cherish votes in the light of the increase in reform during local elections.
Some went on to suggest that the prime minister is now suggesting that the pressure on housing and public services is because of migrants.
Starmer had previously said: “Poor housing, poor public services, are not the fault of migrants, they are politics.”
In the same spirit, Powell had told anecdotes by British who had found themselves at a disadvantage after an inflow of migrants.
“They thought that their wives were unable to obtain hospital beds in the birth, their children are unable to obtain school places, their houses and neighborhoods changed to recognition, their plans and prospects for the future defeated; at work they found at work that employers hesitated that employers hesitated to the immigrants, who are against ”
Powell also suggested the danger that ethnic minorities could be for “native born” people.
“I don’t think it’s right to make those comparisons. It’s completely different,” she said BBC Radio 4.
“And the prime minister said yesterday, I almost think in the same breath … spoke about the various country that we are and that is part of our strength.”
Asked how he felt when he heard Sir Keir’s language, Sir Sadiq Khan, the Labor Mayor of London, said,: “I read the white paper and I understand the context of the white paper, and those are not words that I would use.”
He added that immigrants are “no sponges or slisen” and said he believed that Sir Keir referred to promises about immigration by Brexiteers and did not try to criticize the contribution of immigrants.
He refused to criticize the prime minister’s policy.
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