Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has defended the language used by Sir Keir Starmer in a speech to unveil plans to cut immigration.

The prime minister said on Monday the UK risked becoming an “an island of strangers” without stricter controls.

The phrase has led some Labour MPs to accuse him of divisive language – a claim rejected by Cooper.

She added the PM had been seeking to highlight the impact of rising migration in recent years and “support for integration,” including English language tests.

She rejected a comparison made by a small number of Labour MPs, notably former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, to the language of Enoch Powell.

Cooper said she didn’t know whether the PM or his speech writers were aware of any similarity to a line in Enoch Powell’s notorious Rivers of Blood speech in 1968, in which the Conservative MP described a future in which Britons “found themselves made strangers in their own country” due to immigration.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she added that Starmer’s speech was “completely different”, adding: “I don’t think it’s right to make those comparisons”.

“The prime minster said yesterday, I think almost in the same breath, talked about the diverse country that we are and that being part of our strength…

“I know that everybody always gets caught up in focusing on different phrases and so on, but we do have to be talking about the policies.”

Asked on BBC Breakfast whether she thought Starmer’s language was toxic, she replied: “I don’t agree, no”, adding the PM was “right to say we need to change”.

Labour Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said he understood the “context” in which the government had announced its new migration measures, but he would not have used the phrase “island of strangers” himself.

Speaking to LBC, he added: “The sort of language I use is different to the language used by others. That’s not the sort of words I would use”.

Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick echoed the prime minister’s comments, adding Sir Keir’s warning the UK could become an island of strangers was “already” true in parts of the country.

The comparison to Powell was made by McDonnell, who lost the Labour whip last year after rebelling on a welfare vote, when questioning Cooper in the Commons on Monday.

The Hayes and Harlington MP said: “When legislation of this nature is being introduced that is serious and could be contentious, it’s critically important that ministers use careful language.

“When the prime minister referred to… an island of strangers, reflecting the language of Enoch Powell, does she realise how shockingly divisive that could be?”

In the same debate, Labour MP Nadia Whittome said immigrants were being “scapegoated for problems that they didn’t cause” and that “the rhetoric surrounding this” risked stirring racial abuse.

The Nottingham East MP asked: “Why are we trying to ape Reform [UK], when that will do nothing to improve our constituents’ lives and just stoke more division?”

The launch of the government’s immigration measures on Monday follows local elections in England earlier this month that saw Labour lose the Runcorn and Helsby seat to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in an historically close by-election.

Reform, which has campaigned heavily on the issue of immigration in recent years, also picked up its first two metro mayors and now controls 10 county councils, challenging the dominance of both Labour and the Conservatives.

Also speaking on the Today programme, Jenrick, who was immigration minister from 2022-2023, said the public was “sick of rhetoric, they want action”.

Jenrick claimed the Conservatives’ failure to reduce net migration over 14 years in power was because of “catastrophic mistakes” and claimed Labour’s plans were a “con by Keir Starmer to trick the British public into believing that he’s going to take action”.

He added Sir Keir’s words “repudiated everything” he had previously stood for, claiming the prime minister had stood for the Labour leadership in 2020 on a policy of “supporting mass migration”.