Woman who inspired Labour shift on immigration speaks out against PM

A woman who inspired the shift in Labour’s approach to immigration has said she ‘doesn’t believe a word the Prime Minister says’. 

Sir Keir Starmer this week revealed that a conversation with a woman in Oldham around 2016 made him realise ‘the left had got it wrong on immigration’. The LDRS/M.E.N. managed to track down the woman in question, Joyce Todd, 79. 

Mrs Todd recalls Sir Keir, who was invited through her connections with Oldham council, visiting her home in Hathershaw to speak about her feelings on immigration.

The M.E.N. first spoke to Mrs Todd in the lead up to Brexit when she shared her frank views on immigration in her community.  Journalists spoke to her again following the riots in the wake of the Southport stabbings, which she warned at the time weren’t ‘only about the far-right’.

During her conversation with Sir Keir, she remembers criticising certain communities who had moved into her neighbourhood. 

Mrs Todd claims the PM, who was then the MP for Holborn and St Pancras and Shadow Minister of Immigration, challenged her on her views at the time. 

“I’m not racist,” Mrs Todd insisted, “I live in a street that to be honest has more Asian people than white people. There are some Eastern Europeans but the majority are Asian. We’re respected, we’re ‘Auntie’ and ‘Uncle’ to the kids round here, we go to all the celebrations. Does that make us racist?”

Sir Keir recalled the encounter during a speech at the Labour Conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, September 30. 

“I realised what was really happening,” he told Labour members. “She, an ordinary working class woman from Oldham, a Labour voter, felt that she had to prove to a Labour politician that she wasn’t racist before she could even bring up the issues in her community. 

“I’ve carried that with me through all the bad years. Whatever our intentions, we had become a party that patronised working people. And that is why we changed the party.” 

The speech came after the party has just announced a slew of changes to reduce immigration. These include a new digital ID card to clamp down illegal workers and tightening conditions on migrants seeking indefinite leave to remain – such as requiring a high level of English, excluding those with criminal records, and requiring a minimum ten year stay before people can apply. 

But asked what she thought about the policy plans, Mrs Todd said: “I don’t believe a word [Keir Starmer] says, I’m sorry. I was brought up Labour. My parents were Labour. But I will never vote for them again.” 

She doesn’t believe the government will follow through on the policies advocated by the PM. 

A Labour Spokesperson said: “This Labour government was elected on a pledge to reduce net migration and tackling illegal migration. We’re getting on with the job of smashing the gangs, cracking down on illegal working,  removing people with no right to be here and securing our borders.”