A former Conservative Home Secretary has said "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" after Sir Keir Starmer warned that mass migration will turn the UK into an "island of strangers".
Suella Braverman told GB News' Chopper's Political Podcast that perhaps she should "take credit" for the Prime Minister's sudden toughening of language on migration.
Asked for her reaction to hearing the hardline rhetoric from a Labour Prime Minister this week, Braverman said: "They say imitation is the best form of flattery.
"Maybe I should take the credit for. Maybe he's secretly reading my speeches. Who knows?"
Suella Braverman sat down with Christopher Hope
GB NEWS
Starmer also warned that immigration had to be reduced significantly because of "forces that are slowly pulling this country apart", in remarks which have enraged the Labour left.
Braverman said the change in tune has come after Reform UK's support surged in the 2025 Local Elections held a fortnight ago.
Suella Braverman had some warm words for Nigel Farage
GB NEWS
She said: "The observation is the right one that he's made. And for it to come from a socialist Prime Minister, I think is telling.
"It's obviously in response to the drubbing that they received at the local elections and the threat from Reform."
Braverman added: "The fact that he said it and he's been able to articulate it, even in the face of backlash from his more left wing, colleagues in Parliament, I think is good."
Suella Braverman
GB NEWS
She also warned that often the Treasury blocks efforts to control migration because of the expected economic benefits of more migrants. This meant that hardline rhetoric rarely led to an actual fall in numbers.
"We've been around this block before," Braverman concluded. "Tony Blair made a very similar speech, kind of in the early 2000s, saying that if you come to this country, you need to learn English. David Cameron said multiculturalism had failed. You know this is a broken record."
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