Southwark is proudly one of the most diverse boroughs in Britain.
Over 40% of our residents were born outside the UK – that’s a statistic that gives our borough its character and strength.
Walk through our streets, visit our schools, or pop into one of our bustling local markets and you’ll see it: people from every corner of the world living, working, and thriving together.
In Elephant and Castle, you’ll hear the rhythms of Latin America — music, food, family businesses that have transformed our high streets and breathed life into our local economy. In Peckham, generations of African and Caribbean families have built strong, proud communities, shaping our culture, our politics, and our identity.
That is what migration looks like: vibrant, hopeful, resilient. It’s the reason our borough thrives. It’s also personal to me. Members of my own family came to the UK from abroad, to seek opportunity. They made this country their home — and in doing so, helped make it a better one.
So when the Prime Minister says Britain risks becoming an “island of strangers”, it isn’t just offensive – it’s dangerous. It fans the flames of division, scapegoats migrants, and undermines the very values that make places like Southwark thrive.
Keir Starmer’s language is the kind of language Enoch Powell used almost 60 years ago, and it belongs in the dustbin of history. It stokes fear, fuels division, and chips away at the very values that hold communities like ours together.
Let’s be clear: migrants are not strangers to us. They are our neighbours, friends, colleagues, and family.
I said it at the Council’s Annual Meeting on Saturday — and I’ll say it again here: in one of the most diverse boroughs in Britain, silence in the face of this kind of rhetoric is not an option. We must all stand up and reject it.
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Instead of celebrating our diversity, the Labour Government is trying to out-Farage Farage.
They are pursuing policies that punish people for seeking safety or trying to build a better life.
Shamefully, Labour MPs joined the Conservatives and Reform to vote down a simple Liberal Democrat proposal to give asylum seekers the right to work while their claims are processed. That’s not leadership – it’s political cowardice.
Southwark has always stood for something better. We’ve passed motions backing the right to work, supported the right of everyone who lives here to have a voice, and celebrated the contribution of every community that calls this borough home.
That’s why we wrote to all five Southwark Labour MPs, urging them to condemn this rhetoric and stand up for our communities. None have yet replied.
We need leaders who will stand for dignity, fairness, and evidence – not prejudice dressed up as policy. We need progressives who will speak out, not look away.
As Southwark’s only elected opposition, Liberal Democrats will continue to speak out – for fairness, for inclusion, and for a borough where everyone can feel safe, valued, and at home.
