45 minutes that made Powell a pariah

ENOCH Powell became a political pariah following the deliberately provocative 196 speech in which he warned of apocalyptic social consequences of rising immigration.

His 45-minute address to local Tories in Birmingham railed against mass immigration and the Race Relations Bill that was making its way through the Commons.

The speech ended with a reference to a prophecy in Virgil’s Aeneid of civil war in Italy with ‘the river Tiber foaming with much blood’. It received a rapturous reception from attendees – but he was sacked as shadow defence secretary by Tory leader Edward Heath the next day.

Polls later showed overall public support for his views. But Powell was left to rot in the political wilderness and eventually resigned from the Conservative Party. He died in 199 at the age of 5.