Labour veteran admits party is 'too frightened to talk about immigration' in wake of violent riots

However, the 79-year-old insisted Labour should control borders and encouraged Starmer to accept frustrations about the situation.

Hodge told The Guardian: “We are all at fault that we’ve always been too frightened to talk about immigration. If you’re a politician, you have a voice.

“We need to use that voice to develop a new discourse about immigration – you lead rather than follow.

“It’s talking about why people are here, what they contribute, the richness they bring to society.

“We also have to show we can control our borders. Those who aren’t legitimate asylum seekers, you send back as quickly as you can.

“If somebody breaks the law here and ends up in prison, you send them back where you can.

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“But then link that to a much more positive and realistic view of immigration. We’ve got to just tackle it.

“People who want to hang on to their seats next time have got to worry that [the election] turnout was low, and be worried that there was this protest vote. We ignore it at our peril.”

Hodge’s comments come after the issue of immigration shot up in YouGov’s list of most important problems facing the country.

Immigration topped the survey for the first time since 2016, with 51 per cent of respondents selecting the issue.

The figure hit 90 per cent among Reform UK voters and 76 per cent among Tory supporters.

Immigration as an issue plummets to 34 per cent with Labour voters and 27 per cent with Liberal Democrat supporters.

Hodge was first elected as the MP for Barking in 1994 and battled the rise of the British National Party.

Ex-BNP leader Nick Griffin received 16.9 per cent of the vote in 2005, with the far-right party picking up 12 out of 51 council seats on Barking & Dagenham Council in 2006.

Hodge put pressure on Tony Blair to curb the rise of the BNP, requesting the then-Prime Minister show more leadership when it came to race and immigration.

Speaking ahead of that year’s local elections, Hodge said white families were angry at the lack of housing since immigrants began arriving in the area, and because asylum seekers had been housed there by inner London councils.

“There was nowhere for the local people to move to and we did not reinvest in social housing,” she said.

“Nor did the Tories. Neither of us have done enough of that.”

However, some local election candidates accused Hodge of inadvertently helping the BNP win a dozen seats in Barking & Dagenham.