No 10 says Starmer ‘utterly rejects’ recommendation he echoed Enoch Powell with ‘island of strangers’ remark
Downing Street has stated that Keir Starmer “completely rejects” tips he echoed Enoch Powell in his speech on immigration the day before today. (See 9.43am.)
At the Downing Street foyer briefing, requested concerning the complaint he has attracted for the use of a word that echoed one utilized by Powell in his Rivers of Blood speech, the PM’s spokesperson stated: “We completely reject that comparison.”
Asked if Starmer used to be no longer anxious about his language, the spokesman stated:
Absolutely, the high minister rejects the ones comparisons and completely stands in the back of the argument he used to be making that migrants make a large contribution to our nation, however migration must be managed.
Asked if Starmer stood through what he stated the day before today about Britain being in danger of changing into an “island of strangers”, the spokesperson spoke back: “Yes.”
Asked if that supposed that Starmer agreed with what Powell stated in 1968 when he stated immigration made local Britons really feel as though they’d “found themselves made strangers in their own country”, the spokesperson stated he didn’t settle for the comparability.
Asked to provide an explanation for the adaptation between the 2 sentiments, the spokesperson stated:
The high minister has made the argument that migrants make a large contribution to the United Kingdom, and feature executed for generations.
Asked if that supposed Starmer could be unwilling to make use of the phrases Powell used, the spokesperson spoke back:
The high minister used to be the use of his personal phrases to rightly recognise each the contribution that migrants have revamped generations and to make the purpose that out of control migration has been has been too prime.
But glance, this govt isn’t going to shy clear of this factor. The public are rightly involved concerning the affect that out of control migration has had on the United Kingdom.
In every other model of the query, the spokesperson used to be requested if Starmer would condemn Powell for what he stated. The spokesperson spoke back: ‘The prime minister would reject in its entirety previous speeches made [by Powell].”
Asked if anyone in Downing Street was aware of the similarity between Starmer’s word and Powell’s, the spokesperson have shyed away from the query and simply stated he rejected “the premise of any comparison”.
When it used to be put to him that the 2 words have been very, very identical, the spokesperson spoke back: “I can reject the comparison.”
Key occasions
Sadiq Khan says he do not need used Starmer’s ‘squalid bankruptcy’ language about hovering immigration
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has distanced himself from the language utilized by Keir Starmer the day before today to explain the affect of mass immigration in the United Kingdom.
In an interview with James O’Brien on LBC, Khan used to be requested how he felt when he heard Starmer say in his speech in No 10 that hovering immigration used to be “a squalid chapter for our politics, our economy, and our country” and that there used to be possibility of Britain turning into “an island of strangers” on account of it.
Khan spoke back: “My job is to reassure those of you listeners who may be nervous and touchy.”
When O’Brien put it to Khan, whose oldsters each got here to the United Kingdom as immigrants, that Starmer used to be “talking about you”, Khan stated that if truth be told Starmer used to be speaking concerning the a lot more fresh wave of very prime immigration. But he added:
Those are the ones aren’t phrases that I’d use … I learn the white paper and I perceive the context of the white paper. And the ones aren’t phrases that I’d use.
Khan additionally stated that the white paper used to be about “solutions” to the issues related to very prime ranges of immigration.
No 10 does no longer problem declare that white paper plans not likely to cut back internet migration beneath 250,000 according to yr
Brian Bell, chair of the federal government’s migration advisory committee, has informed the Daily Telegraph that the plans within the immigration white paper are not likely to cut back internet migration beneath 250,000 a yr. It used to be at 728,000 within the yr finishing June 2024, or even upper within the yr sooner than.
Net migration used to be already falling, and the measures introduced the day before today are anticipated to cut back immigration through a minimum of 100,000. Bell informed the Telegraph this supposed internet migration would almost definitely fall to “under 300,000 and probably closer to 250,000 in the next few years”.
At the Downing Street foyer briefing, requested if Keir Starmer could be happy with internet migration at 250,000, the PM’s spokesperson didn’t problem the determine.
Instead, he stated Starmer has dominated out having a goal for internet migration as a result of previously objectives have no longer labored. He additionally stated that Starmer has been transparent that, if additional steps are wanted, the federal government will take them.
No 10 says Starmer ‘utterly rejects’ recommendation he echoed Enoch Powell with ‘island of strangers’ remark
Downing Street has stated that Keir Starmer “completely rejects” tips he echoed Enoch Powell in his speech on immigration the day before today. (See 9.43am.)
At the Downing Street foyer briefing, requested concerning the complaint he has attracted for the use of a word that echoed one utilized by Powell in his Rivers of Blood speech, the PM’s spokesperson stated: “We completely reject that comparison.”
Asked if Starmer used to be no longer anxious about his language, the spokesman stated:
Absolutely, the high minister rejects the ones comparisons and completely stands in the back of the argument he used to be making that migrants make a large contribution to our nation, however migration must be managed.
Asked if Starmer stood through what he stated the day before today about Britain being in danger of changing into an “island of strangers”, the spokesperson spoke back: “Yes.”
Asked if that supposed that Starmer agreed with what Powell stated in 1968 when he stated immigration made local Britons really feel as though they’d “found themselves made strangers in their own country”, the spokesperson stated he didn’t settle for the comparability.
Asked to provide an explanation for the adaptation between the 2 sentiments, the spokesperson stated:
The high minister has made the argument that migrants make a large contribution to the United Kingdom, and feature executed for generations.
Asked if that supposed Starmer could be unwilling to make use of the phrases Powell used, the spokesperson spoke back:
The high minister used to be the use of his personal phrases to rightly recognise each the contribution that migrants have revamped generations and to make the purpose that out of control migration has been has been too prime.
But glance, this govt isn’t going to shy clear of this factor. The public are rightly involved concerning the affect that out of control migration has had on the United Kingdom.
In every other model of the query, the spokesperson used to be requested if Starmer would condemn Powell for what he stated. The spokesperson spoke back: ‘The prime minister would reject in its entirety previous speeches made [by Powell].”
Asked if anyone in Downing Street was aware of the similarity between Starmer’s word and Powell’s, the spokesperson have shyed away from the query and simply stated he rejected “the premise of any comparison”.
When it used to be put to him that the 2 words have been very, very identical, the spokesperson spoke back: “I can reject the comparison.”
Putin ‘prevaricating’ and ‘obfuscating’ over peace in Ukraine, David Lammy tells MPs
Vladimir Putin is “prevaricating” and “obfuscating” in peace talks with Ukraine, David Lammy has informed MPs.
Speaking throughout questions within the Commons, the overseas secretary stated:
We welcome the wishes to get a long lasting peace, however there should be a ceasefire as a way to interact in the ones talks it sort of feels to me, and it’s Putin this is prevaricating, it’s Putin this is obfuscating and we should name that out with our lengthy revel in of scrutinising that exact person.
In July Labour may have been in energy for a yr. To mark the anniversary, Guardian Live occasions are webhosting a dialog in Conway Hall, London, on Wednesday 9 July the place Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, Rafael Behr, a Guardian columnist, Frances O’Grady, the Labour peer and previous TUC normal secretary, and Salma Shah, the previous Conservative particular adviser to Sajid Javid, will speak about the way it has long past.
There is extra concerning the match, and a hyperlink permitting you to e-book tickets, right here.
Government to develop legislation criminalising those that inspire other folks to self-harm
Anyone who assists somebody to self-harm – akin to through giving them a blade or tablets – may just withstand 5 years in jail underneath plans for a brand new offence, PA Media reviews. PA says:
Ministers are searching for to develop the legislation to criminalise those that inspire or help self damage on-line or in particular person, as a part of the crime and policing invoice.
The transfer would imply any individual who intend to reason severe self-harm might be prosecuted, even supposing that didn’t result in any accidents.
Under the Online Safety Act 2023, it’s already unlawful to inspire or help suicide or self-harm via content material on-line.
But the trade to the legislation seeks to interchange the present offence to hide all tactics self-harm might be aided.
Commenting at the trade, Alex Davies-Jones, the sufferers minister, stated:
The incidence of significant self-harm, particularly in younger other folks, is vastly regarding.
It is an terrible fact that some other folks inspire or help such behaviour, and one I sought after to attract consideration to throughout Mental Health Awareness Week.
Whether encouragement is through communique, or extra without delay through help, the end result is identical.
We are decided that any one intending to peer others damage themselves is stopped and handled within the most powerful manner.
UK collectively calling for pressing assembly of UN safety council to talk about scenario in Gaza, minister tells MPs
David Lammy, the overseas secretary, has simply began taking questions within the Commons. In reaction to the primary query, Hamish Falconer, minister for the Middle East, stated the United Kingdom has joined requires an pressing assembly of the UN safety council this afternoon to talk about the placement in Gaza.
After Foreign Office questions, Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, is calling an pressing query concerning the Mansion House accord – a handle pension firms supposed to get them to take a position extra in UK companies.
The govt’s immigration white paper generated adverse headlines throughout all wings of the click this morning.
Here are two of the headlines in rightwing papers.
And listed here are 3 headlines from papers within the centre or at the left.
But, with out gratifying the left or the proper, perhaps Keir Starmer used to be aligned with the perspectives of people that don’t determine with each side? That is the argument made through Luke Tryl, who as director of More in Common UK spends a large number of time in focal point teams researching public opinion. He posted those on Bluesky the day before today.
IMO, each Starmer’s reputation that migration is a part of Britain’s nationwide tale, and the caution that with out extra keep watch over “we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together” does a horny excellent activity of taking pictures the place maximum Brits are on immigration.
There are only a few pull up the drawbridgers even in probably the most migration sceptic focal point teams we run (or within the polling). But there are very undoubtedly worries, even in additional liberal teams, that the tempo/scale of immigration and loss of integration expectancies undermines concord/id/group.
Insisting extra keep watch over is wanted and we will have to have larger expectancies on contribution/integration (and we will have to if truth be told be ready to spend money on it) tackling reliance on reasonable labour, whilst additionally being transparent Britain will all the time need to draw in other folks, turns out to fulfill public expectancies on stability
UK unemployment rises to very best in just about 4 years
The unemployment price in the United Kingdom has risen to its very best stage in nearly 4 years, in keeping with reliable figures, as the roles marketplace continues to gradual. Heather Stewart has the tale.
Thames Water boss defends early £195,000 bonus in proof to MPs
Chris Weston, leader govt at Thames Water, has defended his choice to simply accept a £195,000 bonus simply 3 months into the activity closing yr.
Giving proof to the Commons atmosphere committee, the place he used to be requested if it used to be sensible to simply accept this type of giant bonus so quickly after her began, Weston spoke back:
I feel within the first 3 months I did make a distinction.
I began to position in position the brand new organisational construction, I began to offer other folks self assurance and reassurance about how proud they might be of the activity they did and what we have been getting down to do. And that helped stabilise the corporate and I feel that used to be essential.
Weston additionally stated the corporate had “lost direction a bit” when he took over.
I used to be the 5th leader govt in 5 years … that creates a confusion for other folks within the corporate. I feel it required clearer path, which I’ve given … Sixteen months in I’m moderately happy with the development we’re making.
It is a large send to show round. It could be very tricky.
Helena Horton
Helena Horton is a Guardian atmosphere reporter.
US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins completed a press convention in London the place she stated she want to see the United Kingdom and the United States extra aligned on meals requirements law.
She additionally perceived to melt her stance on getting the United Kingdom to simply accept chlorine-washed hen and hormone-treated red meat from closing week when she stated US agriculture used to be being handled “very unfairly” through nations akin to the United Kingdom and that she sought after the United Kingdom to simply accept “all meat” from the United States.
Rollins informed journalists the marketplace is starting to transfer clear of hormone-treated red meat, and that chlorine-washed hen has nearly completely been got rid of from the United States provide chain.
Asked about US red meat manufacturers phasing out hormones she stated:
Our agriculture manufacturers, our farm animals manufacturers and so on, clearly are continuously staring at what the markets appear to be, and if the markets are calling for a particular kind, or they have got extra alternative someplace, then I feel that we doubtlessly do see some motion available in the market.
Rollins added that she sought after the United States, UK and different nations to have extra regulatory alignment and identical requirements for agriculture. She stated:
One factor … I’ve taken from a large number of the discussions the day before today [when she met Steve Reed, the enviroment secretary] and nowadays is that the extra our two nations, and people who are aligned with our values, are regulatory aligned, that means that we don’t have these kind of other methods and constructions – I feel that this is going to head a greatly lengthy solution to supporting the agriculture business.
Rollins additionally perceived to have softened her stance on asking the United Kingdom to simply accept chlorine hen. She stated:
Only about 5% of our hen in America is if truth be told handled that manner, with the chlorine. So we’ve moved, over the past decade, utterly clear of the ‘chlorine chicken’. So that’s I feel that’s a truly essential to dispel, and I’m very thankful to try this.
She additionally stated that, even if beef and poultry weren’t incorporated in closing week’s US-UK business deal, they’re on the best of the listing for additional discussions.
Starmer’s use of word echoing Enoch Powell used to be ‘twist of fate’, no longer intentional, says supply with regards to No 10
In an interview on Newsnight closing night time Arlene Foster, the previous DUP chief, stated she idea that somebody in Downing Street would have identified that “island of strangers” used to be a transparent echo of what Enoch Powell stated in his Rivers of Blood speech. Asked if Keir Starmer would were acutely aware of the similarities within the language, she spoke back:
Somebody did Downing Street, I’m satisfied of it,
“Island of strangers” is an overly explicit type of phrases, it’s nearly a time period of artwork. So the place did it come from? And who used to be the person who stated this will have to move into the speech?
But Starmer’s allies are pronouncing it used to be authentic mistake, and no longer an intentional echo of what Powell stated. “It was an accident, and not designed to cause a row,” in keeping with a supply with regards to No 10 accustomed to what came about. The supply accepts that somebody will have to have realised that the “island of strangers” word had Powellite connotations. But the truth that this used to be no longer picked up is attributed to an error, and no longer an try to reference the Rivers of Blood speech.
This is from Steve Richards, the veteran political commentator, on social media the Starmer/Powell language row.
Keir Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ remark is a part of a trend.. his willingness to learn out no matter is written for him through clunky advisers ..on this case making an attempt too arduous to make him sound like Farage..As a outcome inauthenticity is a much wider drawback for him. There are many arguments to be made for border safety. He made a few of them effectively…All misplaced through a unmarried silly word that some proper wing populists would consider carefully sooner than the use of…and anyway predictably results in the Mail and co operating their standard antagonistic entrance pages.
Photograph: James Manning/PA
Robert Jenrick claims immigration has already became UK into ‘island of strangers’
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, used to be additionally doing an interview spherical this morning. Asked about Keir Starmer’s caution in his speech the day before today that Britain used to be in danger of turning into an “island of strangers” on account of the affect of mass immigration, Jenrick claimed Britain used to be already like this. He informed Times Radio:
I feel it’s true. In truth, I feel in some puts we already are. Aggressive ranges of mass migration have made us extra divided.
If you take a look at communities in our nation, as an example central Bradford, 50% of other folks have been born out of doors of the United Kingdom; in central Luton, 46% of citizens arrived previously decade.
There are puts like Dagenham the place the white British inhabitants has fallen through nearly 60% within the closing 25 years.
People in lots of portions of our nation are experiencing profound trade on account of the degrees of migration that we’ve observed, and we’ve were given to carry that again to the historical ranges that we loved as a rustic which enabled us to be a well-integrated and united nation, moderately than the one who we’re seeing nowadays.
(A pedant may indicate that, despite the fact that Enoch Powell and Keir Starmer have been creating a rhetorical level after they mentioned “strangers”, technically we’re an island of strangers anway. There are nearly 70 million people right here, and maximum people best individually know masses, or at easiest a couple of hundreds, of our fellow electorate.)
Cooper defends Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ line however says she does no longer know if he used to be acutely aware of Enoch Powell echo
Good morning. Yesterday Keir Starmer unveiled the federal government’s immigration white paper, a vital coverage intervention on a subject this is close to the highest of the general public’s listing of issues. Yet nowadays the controversy is ruled no longer through the real insurance policies – despite the fact that they may reason giant issues in some sectors of the financial system, as we give an explanation for right here – however through the language Starmer used to shield them.
To recap, in a single segment of his speech the day before today Starmer stated:
Nations rely on regulations – honest regulations. Sometimes they’re written down, incessantly they’re no longer, however both manner, they provide form to our values. They information us against our rights, after all, but additionally our obligations, the tasks we owe to each other. Now, in a various country like ours, and I rejoice that, those regulations grow to be much more essential. Without them, we possibility turning into an island of strangers, no longer a country that walks ahead in combination.
This generated large controversy no longer simply on account of the argument (some other folks don’t settle for the declare that prime ranges of immigration undermine social concord), however for the reason that argument and the language echo what Enoch Powell stated in his notorious Rivers of Blood speech in 1968. Powell stated:
While, to the immigrant, access to this nation used to be admission to privileges and alternatives eagerly sought, the affect upon the present inhabitants used to be very other. For causes which they may no longer comprehend, and in pursuance of a call through default, on which they have been by no means consulted, they discovered themselves made strangers in their very own nation.
They discovered their other halves not able to acquire health center beds in childbirth, their youngsters not able to acquire faculty puts, their houses and neighbourhoods modified past reputation, their plans and possibilities for the long run defeated; at paintings they discovered that employers hesitated to use to the immigrant employee the factors of self-discipline and competence required of the native-born employee; they started to listen to, as time went through, an increasing number of voices which informed them that they have been now the undesirable.
Starmer used to be obviously echoing Powell. But what isn’t transparent is whether or not, for Starmer and/or the one who write the speech, this used to be intentional, subconscious (other folks can bear in mind words with out recalling the place they got here from), or entire twist of fate (politicians greater than 50 years aside, creating a identical argument, through deploying the similar, not-particularly-unusual phrase).
Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech used to be denounced as racist once he delivered it (even if no longer such a lot for his feedback about local Britons discovering mass migration unsettling, the place many of us would agree he had some degree, however for his recommendation that it will culminate in violence, oppression and social cave in, the place he has became out to be hopelessly improper) and it’s nonetheless extensively seen as abhorrent. Yesterday Starmer used to be condemned through leftwingers for pronouncing one thing that sounded Powellite.
But ministers have defended him. Asked about this on Newsnight closing night time, Jacqui Smith, the abilities minister, stated evaluating the Starmer speech to Powell’s used to be “wrong”. She went on:
Labour and Labour governments have all the time listened to other folks when it comes to their issues about their safety and the alternatives that they need to have for themselves and their youngsters. And once we see one thing that we take into account that other folks consider is bigoted, then we’re going to take motion on that. That’s what the British other folks be expecting us to do, that’s what Labour governments do.
This morning Yvette Cooper, the house secretary, used to be giving interviews, and at the Today programme she stated she agreed with Smith. She went on:
I don’t assume it’s proper to make the ones comparisons [between Starmer’s speech and Powell’s]. It’s utterly other. And the high minister stated the day before today, I feel nearly in the similar breath, talked concerning the various nation that we’re and that being a part of our energy.
Cooper stated that, when Starmer mentioned the upward push of Britain being “an island of strangers”, he used to be relating to “the importance of recognising the impact … [of] this big increase in net migration, and also that we’ve got to have the support for integration, support for English language speaking, a lot of the measures that are set out as part of that white paper”.
Asked if Starmer or his speech writers knew that the “island of strangers” word echoed Powell, Cooper stated she didn’t know.
Here is the time table for the day.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cupboard.
10am: Thames Water bosses give proof to the Commons atmosphere committee about reforming the water sector.
11.30am: David Lammy, the overseas secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a foyer briefing.
2.30pm: MPs start a debate on an assisted death invoice.
3.15pm: Jonathan Reynolds, the trade secretary, offers proof to the Commons trade committee about business technique.
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