Former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf has attacked Sir Keir Starmer for his “dog whistle” stance on immigration after the prime minister stated the UK risked turning into an “island of strangers”.
In a bit penned by Mr Yousaf for LBC, the previous chief of the Scottish Nationwide Occasion (SNP) repeated claims the prime minister’s latest remarks on immigration have been a “modern echo” of Enoch Powell’s notorious 1968 Rivers Of Blood speech.
The prime minister stirred controversy earlier this week when he argued Britain “risked becoming an island of strangers” if immigration ranges weren’t reduce.
After many MPs criticised his language, Sir Keir rejected the comparability to Powell, together with his official spokesperson saying migrants have made a “massive contribution” to society however his level was that the Tories “lost control of the system”.
Picture:File pic: PA
Within the LBC piece printed on Saturday, Mr Yousaf stated: “Powell’s 1968 speech warned of immigration as an existential risk to ‘our blood and our culture’, stoking racial panic that led on to many years of hostile migration insurance policies.
“Starmer’s invocation of ‘strangers’ is a contemporary echo – a dog-whistle to voters who blame migrants for each social unwell, from stretched public companies to the cost-of-living disaster.
“It betrays a failure to understand, or deliberately mask the fact that Britain’s prosperity depends on migration, on openness not building walls.”
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2:42Starmer’s speech divides opinion
The package deal is geared toward decreasing the variety of folks coming to the UK by as much as 100,000 per yr, although the federal government has not formally set a goal.
The federal government is beneath strain to sort out authorized migration, in addition to unlawful immigration, amid Reform UK’s surge within the polls.
Mr Yousaf concluded his article saying the UK was “on the brink of possibly handing the keys of No 10 to Nigel Farage”.
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