In a speech on 12 May, Keir Starmer suggested the UK is becoming an “island of strangers” because of immigration. This is music to the ears of Nigel Farage because it concedes to the thrust of his main argument.
On one level, this stokes a racist sentiment that just because someone appears different, say through skin colour, they are less likely to be a friend at a human level. It suggests we should desire for people to have the same background, rather than celebrating cultural differences. But most of all, it obscures the fact that each person is unique beyond where they are from.
And it plays right into the hand of Nigel Farage. The Reform leader branded the immigration white paper as a “knee jerk reaction” to the party’s success at the local elections.
Starmer: “shameful and dangerous”
On social media, people were outraged with Starmer’s approach:
The step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous.
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.
— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) May 12, 2025
Is Starmer competing with Enoch Powell’s rivers of blood speech ? ‘ Island of Strangers’ ? Is this what 10 months in powers has reduced him to ? Instead of redistributing wealth & fighting corruption he’s become a shameful mouthpiece for obscene wealth & inequality.
— Tanita Tikaram💙 (@tanita_tikaram) May 12, 2025
Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ speech marks Labour’s complete capitulation to the politics of Nigel Farage. Shameful.
— David__Osland (@David__Osland) May 12, 2025
What’s more, there are already controls on immigration. To emigrate to the UK, one needs either a job offer, significant capital, education prospects, UK ancestry, family or humanitarian reasons. Additionally, UK employers usually must pay an ‘immigration skills charge’ for hiring abroad. The white paper is raising that by 32%.
The idea the UK is ‘full’ is also misguided. Only 5% of land is used for homes and gardens. That means all 67m of us live in a country where 95% of the land is used for other things. To be sure, 71% of UK land is used for agriculture. And no one’s saying we should develop all of it. But it’s not ‘full’.
The fact is that 64% of the UK believe immigration has had a positive or neutral impact on the country.
So, Starmer should not be responding to Reform through presenting immigration from a mainly negative perspective. That only hands power to Farage.
But then again, during the election the Labour Party leader pretty much gifted Farage his seat. He pulled the campaign of the Labour candidate in Farage’s constituency: Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, a 27 year old Black man. This can only be explained through Starmer actually wanting to boost Farage in order to keep UK political discourse right-wing.
We know from Starmer’s sabotage of Jeremy Corbyn that he would opt for a conservative regime over left-wing progression. It’s the same with his view on Farage.
Featured image via the Canary
