Starmer's deep regret for 'island of strangers' speech

Even as he was reading out the words declaring that Britain was in danger of becoming an “island of strangers”, Keir Starmer felt uncomfortable. He almost cancelled the press conference that was due to be held after his speech.

- Rachel Sylvester

When ITV's political editor Robert Peston asked a long-winded question, the prime minister closed his eyes and muttered, almost under his breath, “We've just got to get through this.”

In the days after the “island of strangers” speech, Downing Street repeatedly defended the controversial words, which critics said had echoes of Enoch Powell’s warning in 1968 that Britons risked becoming “strangers in their own country”. Ministers were sent out to back the prime minister and Starmer himself was defiant in the face of criticism. But it turns out that he never agreed with the language he used.

He has now admitted in an interview for The Observer that he “deeply regrets” using the phrase. “I wouldn't have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be interpreted as an echo of Powell,” he tells his biographer, Tom Baldwin. “That particular phrase — it wasn’t right.”

Although emphasising he is not making excuses and blames no one but himself, Starmer says he was distracted because the night before there had been an arson attack on his Kentish Town home. He admits he should have read the speech properly and “held it up to the light a bit more”.

Since his comments were published on