In 1968, Enoch Powell delivered his infamous "Rivers of Blood" speech in Birmingham, warning that within 15 to 20 years, “the black man would have the whip hand over the white man”. White Britons had become “strangers in their own land”, claimed the former Shadow Defence Secretary. Powell was promptly dismissed from his post, but not before igniting a political firestorm.
A Gallup poll taken at the time revealed that 74% of the British public sympathised with his views. Not long after, dockers and meat porters marched through the East End of London in support.
Balwinder Rana, one of only five Asian students studying at Gravesend College in Kent at the time, remembers the impact of Powell’s speech. "I was in the common room talking, and a student came round and threw a newspaper in front of me with the headline 'Send them back, says Enoch Powell'. He smirked and laughed at me with others."
There was a sudden shift in public attitudes. ‘There were, of course, racist students, but before then they kept quiet. This rhetoric suddenly gave them some confidence. I remember standing in the queue for lunch – they were sniggering at me and shouting “Enoch Powell is right”.’
There were, indeed, rivers of blood after Enoch Powell made his speech. The blood of Gurdip Singh Chaggar in Southall. Altab Ali in Brick Lane. Stephen Lawrence in Eltham.
This was the era of ‘Paki-bashing.’ Homes, shops and places of worship were attacked. Newspapers regularly fanned the flames of bigotry with headlines about an ‘Asian invasion’. And Black and Asian people, young and old, were murdered on the streets. Between 1976 and 1985, there were around 35 racist murders.
Fast forward to last week, and Keir Starmer seemed to be leafing through Powell’s old playbook. In a recent speech bemoaning the increase in migration under the conservatives, the Prime Minister spoke of a squalid chapter. He said he was shutting down the lab and ending the 'experiment' and warned that Britain risked becoming "an island of strangers."
It’s easy to forget, we’re talking about human beings here. Slightly more sanitised than Powell, the message carries the same toxic undercurrent.
Last summer marked the worst instance of racist violence in over a century. In Hartlepool, a young South Asian man was walking down a street when, without warning, he was punched in the face. Onlookers cheered, laughed and yelled racial slurs. “A Paki got banged,” one shouted as those around him began to smash the windows of small businesses and violently kick down the door of a nearby house.
In neighbouring Middlesbrough, a group of white men erected a makeshift checkpoint, halting traffic and interrogating drivers about their ethnicity, demanding to know if they were white or English.
Starmer's Powell problem
Over a dozen towns and cities were impacted by rioting, with smaller, geographically isolated Black and Asian communities particularly vulnerable. In Tamworth and Rotherham, rioters tried to burn down hotels housing refugees. That violence did not emerge in a vacuum - it was enabled by rhetoric from the top, demonising Muslims and migrants.
The atmosphere of hate that led to those riots has not disappeared and the irresponsible rhetoric of politicians like Keir Starmer risk fuelling the fire once again.
He’s not alone in this regard. British political history is littered with anti-migrant rhetoric, from Margaret Thatcher warning Britain was being “swamped” in the 1980s, to David Cameron describing desperate people fleeing war as a "swarm". Now, against a backdrop of rising far-right extremism and some of the most serious racist rioting in recent memory, such language is even more dangerous.
Some defend Starmer, claiming that in that same speech he celebrated the contribution of migrants in rebuilding the country after the Second World War. Powell too, pointed to the contribution of Commonwealth doctors, highlighting how they had “enabled our hospital service to be expanded faster than would otherwise have been possible.”
In fact, as Health Minister between 1960 and 1963, it was Powell who had championed the recruitment of Black and Asian doctors and nurses into the National health service. Now as then, their labour is desired but their presence is despised.
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The so-called "squalid chapter" Starmer refers to is the rise in net migration under the Tories. But why did it rise? The answer lies in humanitarian and practical responses: the Ukraine Resettlement Scheme, the Hong Kong BNO visa pathway, the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. Add to that the post-Covid influx of international students, and vital visas for health and social care workers to tackle urgent labour shortages.
There’s plenty of talk about backing British workers — but precious little action to match. In social care alone, there are 130,000 vacancies. Construction experts say we need a quarter of a million extra workers if the government hopes to hit its target of building 1.5 million homes in the next Parliament. Resident doctors (formerly known as junior doctors) are currently being balloted on strike action over pay while the Royal College of Nursing have warned that nurses could follow suit.
Meanwhile, we face an ageing population, declining birth rates, and chronic skill shortages across the economy.
What’s needed isn’t scapegoating, but structural reform: investment in technical education and adult skills, improving pay and working conditions in care and construction, and tackling the recruitment and retention crisis gripping the NHS.
Instead, the government is slashing the national adult skills budget by 6% while failing to adequately invest in our broken public services and crumbling infrastructure.
Rather than take responsibility, it points the finger, aping the language and tactics of Nigel Farage and the Reform Party. But the imitation won’t work. Voters tend to prefer the original over the copy. Why settle for Reform-lite when you can have the full-fat version?
In using Powell-esque language to discuss migrants, 96% of whom arrive through legal routes and follow the rules, Starmer is not solving problems.
He’s deflecting from them. His rhetoric is a panicked response to Reform’s local election success. But what Labour conveniently overlooks is that many of its former voters are more angry about crumbling public services, cuts to welfare and winter fuel support, and a government that seems increasingly out of touch.
Starmer’s recent “island of strangers” speech may mark a political pivot, but it’s already proving to be a miscalculation. His poll numbers continue to slide, and it’s becoming harder to imagine him lasting long in Number 10. History teaches us that when political leaders stoke division, it’s the most vulnerable communities who suffer the consequences. And once that door is opened, it’s difficult to close again.
Taj Ali is a journalist and historian. His work has appeared in the Huffington Post, Metro and the Independent. He is the former editor of Tribune Magazine and is currently writing a book on the history of British South Asian political activism in the UK.
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