David Cameron’s rhetoric on immigration was compared to Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech by one of his own Cabinet ministers on Sunday.
Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said the Prime Minister had made British voters “schizophrenic” about the issue.
Mr Cable accused Mr Cameron and members of the Conservative Party of “doing harm” with their “populist” immigration policies.
The Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister suggested that Conservative rhetoric over immigration was similar to anti-Semitic “panics over Jewish immigrants” in the early 20th century.
His comments, just over a week before Britain opens its borders to migrants from Romania and Bulgaria, will inflame tensions in the Coalition.
Conservative MPs on Sunday night described Mr Cable’s comments as “unacceptable” and “offensive”.
Government sources also questioned how a senior minister can remain a member of the Cabinet when he “compares people in it to Enoch Powell”. » | Peter Dominiczak, Assistant Political Editor | Sunday, Decemebr 22, 2013
