Powell could not have said, like Starmer, that "Migration is part of Britain’s national story and an essential element of a strong economy". Nor could he "celebrate" "a diverse nation". Starmer's "island of strangers" claim was about a lack of social cohesion & shared obligation, not subordination.

Starmer's remarks were deplorable, not because they echoed Powell (they didn't) but because they endorsed the core claims of *modern* populism: - that a "squalid" establishment conspired against the people; and - that immigration is to blame for Britain's poor economy, housing & public services.

If you're going to attack immigration levels in 2022-3, you need to say something about provision for Ukraine & Hong Kong (which Labour backed). Blaming a "one-nation experiment in open borders" is not levelling with voters or restoring trust. It's telling the kind of lie on which populism thrives

If Britain is an "island of strangers", that's not because of people who've raised families here, built new lives & contributed to our schools, industries & public services. It's because of changing technologies & patterns of work, social atomisation, declining social provision & rampant inequality

Starmer doesn't seem to realise that, if you consistently accept the way your opponents frame a question, you'll find it hard to reject the answers that they give. If you keep telling voters that Farage is right in his analysis, it will be hard to persuade them that he's wrong in his prescriptions.