Sir Keir Starmer has rejected the comparison to Enoch Powell after he said the UK was at risk of becoming an “island of strangers” if migration does not come down.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said migrants have made a “massive contribution” to society but the Tories “lost control of the system” and that is the point he was making.
The remark has drawn criticism from Labour backbenchers, who have compared it to the late Conservative MP’s inflammatory 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech.
In the speech, Mr Powell imagined a future multicultural Britain where the white population would find themselves “strangers in their own country” as a result of migration.
Among those to make the comparison was the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who said on X that “Talk of an “island of strangers” shockingly echoes the divisive language of Enoch Powell”.
However, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “The PM rejects this comparison. He said that migrants have made a massive contribution to society.
“It is also right to say that between 2019 and 2024, the previous government lost control of the system. Migration needs to be controlled, fair and people that come here should integrate.”
Enoch Powell. Pic: PA
Asked why the prime minister used such robust language, the spokesperson said he was not going to “shy away” from the issue of immigration and the British public want it to be reduced.
He added: “We have welcomed immigrants for decades, but it’s too high and must come down. Also, it’s important for our domestic skills system, which is good for our economy.”
What has the government announced?
Sir Keir made the comment at a news conference in which measures were announced to curb net migration, including banning care homes from recruiting overseas, new English language requirements for visa holders and stricter rules on gaining British citizenship.
The package is aimed at reducing the number of people coming to the UK by up to 100,000 per year, though the government has not officially set a target.
Net migration – the difference between the number of people immigrating and emigrating to a country – soared when the UK left the EU in January 2020.
It reached 903,000 in the year to June 2023 before falling to 728,000 in mid-2024. But that is still well above its pre-Brexit high of 329,000 in the year up to June 2015.
Sir Keir said parts of the UK’s economy “seem almost addicted to importing cheap labour” rather than investing in skills at home.
However, it is not clear how the government plans to boost the domestic workforce, amid a UK skills shortage and record numbers of people being out of work.
According to the ONS, there are 9.2 million people of working age in the UK who are economically inactive, including 1.8m 18-24 year olds.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said the government is “focused on upskilling British workers” and “especially helping young people in the job sector” but did not elaborate how.
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PM’s ‘tough’ migration policies explained
On care homes, he said, around 40,000 care workers came over on visas for jobs that did not exist, and companies can recruit from that pool.
Earlier, a number of Labour MPs came to the prime minister’s defence. Rother Valley MP Jake Richards said on X that Sir Keir is “absolutely right to warn of the risk of becoming an ‘island of strangers’.
“Millions of people across the country have similar concerns. This theme must be central to missions across immigration, employment, work and tackling neighbourhood deprivation,” he said.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick went further, telling Sky News he believes the UK “already is an island of strangers”, naming several areas “where we are a very divided and segregated society”.
However former Labour home secretary Lord David Blunkett criticised the rhetoric, saying in a speech at a University of Law graduation ceremony: “I never felt I lived in, or had a part to play in, a country of strangers.
“I thought welcoming people from across the world was a tribute to our society, where people want to make their homes, to build a life and their economy and to contribute to our society.
“I think we need to be kind to each other, but we need a much kinder national world as well.”
Kia’s first electric van is proving to be even more functional. The new PV5 WAV is specifically designed to be affordable, accessible, and wheelchair-friendly. Meet the new Kia PV5 WAV.
Meet the Kia PV5 WAV electric van
The PV5 is a fully electric midsize van. It’s the first of many from Kia’s new Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) business.
Kia promised its PBVs would go “Beyond Mobility,” and the company is proving it. On Tuesday, Kia unveiled the new PV5 WAV, calling it “a new era for wheelchair accessible electric vehicles.”
The PV5 is the perfect electric van for the task. Based on its new E-GMP.S EV platform, it has a flat floor design and extended wheelbase, unlocking more interior space.
Kia designed the electric van not only for wheelchair users but also for their families, caregivers, and drivers. The PV5 WAV features a custom side-entry system to make it easier to get in and out of. An adjustable third-row seat enables users to assist from the side.
It will also feature a specially developed wheelchair belt fastener and entry ramp that can handle up to 661 lbs (300 kg).
According to Kia, the PV5 will include all necessary equipment for individuals with disabilities, based on the AAOS open software platform.
The new electric van variant will be built alongside other PV5 models at Kia’s Hwaseong EVO Plant in Korea. Kia opened PV5 Passenger pre-orders (shown below) in the UK on May 1, starting at £32,995, or about $44,000. It will launch in Europe and Korea later this year, followed by other global markets in 2026.
Kia’s Passenger electric van is offered with two battery options: 51.5 kWh or 71.2 kWh, good for up to 179 miles or 249 miles of WLTP driving range.
After partnering with Motability Operations in February, Kia said, “users receiving a disability allowance can choose an affordable and accessible vehicle.”
The PV5 WAV will initially launch in the UK, but Kia plans to expand sales to other global regions. A larger PV7 van will arrive in 2027, followed by the PV9 in 2029. Kia will continue launching new electric variants and use cases. By 2030, the company aims to sell 250,000 electric vans as it taps into a new market.
Last month, at the 2025 Seoul Mobility Show, Kia and LG Electronics unveiled two new “Speilraum” PV5 electric van concepts for camping and other fun uses. What’s next?
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US republicans have unveiled their new tax proposal, which kills a slew of tax credits to help working families become more energy efficient, improve US air quality, and boost US manufacturing. The republican proposal instead channels that money to wealthy elites, increasing the deficit by trillions of dollars along the way.
Republicans in Congress released their 389-page proposal today and, as expected, it includes several provisions to eliminate popular clean energy credits which were driving a boost in American manufacturing.
The credits were largely established under President Biden as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which raised hundreds of billions of dollars through tax enforcement on wealthy individuals and corporations and channeled that into energy efficiency credits for American families.
We’ve covered how families could save thousands of dollars on upgrades to lower their energy costs through these credits.
But these credits aren’t just money-saving for Americans, they also work to boost American manufacturing.
Due to various provisions in the bill, particularly around the $7,500 EV tax credit which was limited to cars that undergo final assembly in North America. While loopholes exist, nevertheless the bill resulted in a massive expansion of American manufacturing, driving hundreds of billions of dollars of investment and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.
But now, republicans in Congress are trying to roll much of that progress back.
Here’s a life of the bill’s various effects (via the BlueGreen Alliance):
- Attaching restrictions to clean energy and manufacturing tax credits that would make them unusable in practical terms while also “sunsetting” those tax credits early, a move that research suggests will increase costs for American families;
- Repealing the Clean Vehicle Tax Credits;
- Repealing the Clean Hydrogen Tax Credit;
- Clawing back unspent funds for air quality monitoring in schools, clean manufacturing, state and community energy programs, and electric grid upgrades;
- Defunding and delaying the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP), which reduces pollution and protects the health of workers and communities;
- Clawing back all unspent Inflation Reduction Act funds, including many provisions that would have lowered energy bills, created jobs, and reduced pollution; and
- Attacks on many additional Inflation Reduction Act programs and initiatives.
You can perhaps see a pattern in these effects: they’re primarily targeted towards increasing costs for regular American families who were taking advantage of these tax credits, and towards programs that would keep you and your children healthier.
Previous analyses show how repealing these tax credits would lead to increased electricity prices for all Americans.
It should not be any surprise to anyone that has been paying attention that republicans want to poison you and raise your costs, but some people apparently still need more examples, so here we are.
In particular, the new tax proposal eliminates the US EV tax credit which had driven so much of that investment due to its domestic manufacturing provision (though there are some small carveouts). Not only does that inflate the cost of the best vehicles available today for Americans, it also takes away one of the incentives that was driving investment in US manufacturing.
We’ve warned before that a bill like this would just send more EV jobs to China, a country where nobody is “debating” over which direction the auto industry is going. Chinese automakers all know the industry is going electric, and they’re putting all of their effort into it.
This is quite a contrast with Western automakers which keep hemming and hawing, begging their governments to let them go bankrupt with anti-EV policy decisions that will only slow down their transition towards modernizing to the global EV status quo.
We’ve already seen the effects of other poor policy decisions on manufacturing, with several companies pausing or canceling plans to build manufacturing facilities in North America as a result of tariff chaos at the hands of an ignoramus. Republican districts have been hit hardest, as they were where the majority of this investment had been going.
And we’ve seen it made clear that the republicans in government responsible for protecting clean air would rather poison you and raise your fuel costs, as long as it helps the oil industry which bribed them into their position.
But then, the cherry on top of today’s tax proposal is that its cuts of these credits don’t even have a greater budgetary purpose. Not only was the Inflation Reduction Act revenue-positive – which is to say, it raised more money than it spent, thus reducing the deficit – today’s republican tax bill is revenue-negative, which is to say, it will increase the deficit.
The republican proposal raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, and it makes use of virtually all of that headroom, as the Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated that it will add $3.7 trillion to US debt. This is largely due to the bill’s significant giveaways to wealthy elites, with the majority of tax cuts targeted at the wealthiest households.
So the government isn’t even getting any savings out of this bill, merely channeling more money from working families to the wealthy elites that the republican party has always tried to benefit (including in other ways than the clean energy credits, like by cutting health care for the poor).
If you have a republican representative, all it takes is 3 republican Congresspeople to oppose this job-killing bill and to stand up for the well-being of their constituents.
Solar industry analysts have identified four republican Congresspeople who might be swayed in this respect, with their contact info below (Find out more about how this will affect the solar tax credit in this article by Electrek’s Michelle Lewis)
But there are many others whose districts have received significant investment, with EV projects being particularly popular in states like Georgia, North Carolina, and others along the burgeoning US “battery belt”. An interactive tool, including the ability to sort by congressional district, is available here.
Otherwise, you can find your representative on Congress’ website, and then search for the contact form on your representative’s website to get in contact with them.
Of course, if you have a Democratic representative, it’s also worth letting them know that you oppose the tax bill, just in case a few of them decide to jump ranks and join the republicans in harming America. We certainly hope they don’t, but it could happen.
Among the proposed cuts is the rooftop solar credit. That means you could have only until the end of this year to install rooftop solar on your home, before republicans raise the cost of doing so by an average of ~$10,000. So if you want to go solar, get started now.
To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here. – ad*
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