UK need to shed 'shadow' of Powell

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the infamous speech had left the country with suppressed political debate on the subject.

Speaking to a crowd of about 200 people at the same Birmingham hotel Enoch Powell gave his speech, Mr Phillips was speaking 40 years after the Wolverhampton South West MP's notorious pronouncements

He said: "For 40 years we have, by mutual consent, sustained a particular silence on the one issue where British people most needed articulate political leadership. Powell so discredited any talk of planning that we have plunged along with an ad hoc approach to immigration."

Mr Phillips said it was necessary to take a renewed look at immigration to ensure Britain kept up with a "tide of talent" that was washing across the globe.

He said it was necessary to achieve a level of integration that would allow Britain to realise the potential skilled immigrants could bring to the economy.

He said: "Whatever we feel about immigrants, immigration is part of our future. The real question will be whether we can, as a modern economy, seize the restless tide of talent that is currently sweeping across the globe. So far we are lagging behind our competitors.

"There is creeping resentment in all directions which can only be halted by policy of manifest fairness. I believe that the more we talk about immigration the better. The 40-year old shockwave of fear has gagged us all for too long."

Addressing representatives from local authorities, police, and a range of equality groups present at the MacDonald Burlington Hotel, Birmingham, Mr Phillips said he thought Mr Powell's dire predictions had not been fulfilled.

In his speech, delivered on April 20, 1968, the Tory frontbencher had warned of disastrous social consequences if immigration levels were not reduced, speaking of 'rivers of blood' flowing through the country.