SIR Keir Starmer says he “deeply regrets” calling Britain an “island of strangers” to warn of mass migration.
The PM disowned his comments from May despite doubling down at the time amid fury from many of his own MPs.
It marks the fourth U-turn in a matter of weeks following retreats on winter fuel, a grooming national inquiry and welfare cuts.
Sir Keir told the Observer he was not aware of the similarities to Enoch Powell’s infamous Rivers of Blood speech.
The PM said: “I had no idea – and my speechwriters didn’t know either. But that particular phrase – no – it wasn’t right. I’ll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it.”
He said he should have read through the speech properly and “held it up to the light a bit more”.
In the speech last month, the Labour leader was plugging his visa crackdown to cut monster levels of net migration.
He declared: “In a diverse nation like ours … we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
Last night, Tory Robert Jenrick said: “It says it all that Starmer ‘deeply regrets’ saying Britain risks becoming an ‘island of strangers’.
“By 2031, nearly a quarter of people in the UK will have been born abroad.
“Starmer regrets saying what’s obviously true because he doesn’t believe in borders or the nation state.
“Starmer now says he was just ‘reading the words out’, like a dummy.
“We need a leader, not a ventriloquist.”
AFPKeir Starmer says he ‘deeply regrets’ calling Britain an ‘island of strangers’ to warn of mass migration[/caption]
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “This is absolute proof that Keir Starmer has no beliefs, no principles, and just reads from a script.
“We need a leader that has vision.”
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