Starmer defends plans to curb net migration after backlash from MPs

Prime minister's island of strangers' speech was likened to rhetoric of Enoch Powell

Keir Starmer has defended his plans to curb net migration after an angry backlash from MPs, businesses and industry to a speech in which he said the UK risked becoming an island of strangers" without tough new policies.

The rhetoric was likened by some critics to the language of Enoch Powell, and the prime minister was accused of pandering to the populist right by insisting he intended to take back control of our borders" and end a squalid chapter" of rising inward migration.