LONDON, May 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - UK religious leaders on Friday called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to tone down his language about migration, after comparisons were made to an inflammatory speech in the 1960s.

Labour leader Starmer this week announced tougher new policies to tackle high levels of migration, in an attempt to stem a growing loss of support to the hard right.

In a speech, he said the UK risked becoming "an island of strangers", prompting comparisons to similar phrasing in the late politician Enoch Powell's so-called "rivers of blood" speech about the dangers of uncontrolled immigration in 1968.

Downing Street has strongly rejected the claims but the religious leaders, including Church of England bishops, senior Muslim and Jewish clerics, asked him to "reconsider the language the government uses".

"Our concern is that the current narrative, which presents only one side of the debate, will only drive public anxiety and entrench polarisation," they wrote.

"When you refer to the 'incalculable' damage done by uncontrolled migration, you are in danger of harming migrant members of our communities and strengthening those who would divide us," they added.

Former human rights lawyer Starmer's hardening tone has shocked some of his parliamentary colleagues and a YouGov poll published Friday indicated that half of Labour voters now have a negative opinion of him.

The 25 signatories instead called for a "more compassionate narrative", pointing out that many migrants had become "part of our national story and fabric".

"Our country would be so much poorer without them," they added.

Starmer's plans include restrictions on recruiting from abroad for the social care sector, doubling the length of time before migrants can qualify for settlement and new powers to deport foreign criminals.

The religious leaders said people who had come to the UK legitimately under rules set by previous governments, working and paying tax.

"Framing this as somehow unfair only feeds the politics of grievance and division," they added.

The letter was sent to Starmer after his speech on Monday, The Guardian newspaper reported.

It quoted a Downing Street spokesperson as saying: "We are clear that migrants make a massive contribution to the UK, and would never denigrate that.

"Britain is an inclusive and tolerant country, but the public expect that people who come here should be expected to learn the language and integrate."