We must “defame” Enoch Powell over the “Rivers of Blood” speech, the Tory conference said

The Liberal Democrats said the four Conservative leadership candidates should “immediately condemn” the comments.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said the party and leadership candidates should “make clear that support for Enoch Powell has no place in the Conservative Party”.

Powell used a speech at a Conservative Association meeting in Birmingham to criticize the Race Relations Anti-Discrimination Act and warned that migration would lead to violence. He said: “As I look ahead, I am full of forebodings; Like the Roman, I seem to see “the Tiber foaming with much blood.”

He was immediately sacked from the shadow cabinet by Edward Heath, the then Conservative leader, after his speech.

Closing the debate on immigration at the Conservative Party conference, Paul Holmes, the deputy immigration minister, said: “I am pleased to hear your views, the challenges and opportunities that you as our members have set out… and that have given us. ” this morning.