In 1968, British Conservative Enoch Powell was dismissed from the Shadow Cabinet after what became known as his “Rivers of Blood” speech. In it, Powell recounted a conversation with an “ordinary working man,” who, he claimed, was staying in the United Kingdom only because he couldn’t afford to leave. What was pushing him away: immigration and Brits being made “strangers in their own country.” When current Labour prime minister Keir Starmer presented his government’s new direction in migration policy, he evoked the language of that speech, claiming that if Britain failed to curb immigration, it would become an “island of strangers.”
This was naturally met with strong reactions from the British left, and Starmer later walked back the comments. Yet this is not only hostile rhetoric but is also backed up by real policy proposals, as Labour doubles down on its hard-line turn on migration. It’s also a move that can only feed right-wing forces. This November, in the context of an emboldened far right marching in the streets, the rising confidence of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, and Labour attacks on pro-Palestinian organizing, the Starmer government’s home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, claims that “illegal migration is tearing our country apart.” This statement came together with a plan to change British asylum rules, and — following Denmark’s lead — to make refugee status only temporary.
The British government’s plan also includes stopping family reunification and limiting housing and financial support for asylum seekers, who Mahmood claims are in a “better position than most British citizens in social housing in this country.” This bears no relation to reality. People seeking asylum are stuck for months or years in “degrading and overcrowded conditions,” often with families of six crammed into a single room, rat and bedbug infestations, and food so poor it leads to malnutrition. Yet instead, benefits and social housing will be…
Auteur: Anton Ösgård
