Immigration is Starmer’s biggest problem

February 13, 1968: “Jim arrived with the air of a man whose mind was made up. He wasn’t going to tolerate any of this bloody liberalism”. With these words Richard Crossman described in his diary the mood of his ministerial colleague, Labour home secretary James Callaghan, as members of a cabinet committee gathered to discuss immigration from Kenya. And Callaghan got his way. Ministers approved his plan for emergency legislation to reduce the flow of Kenyan Asians into Britain. This was, the committee accepted, going back on undertakings given when Kenya became independent, it was at variance with international obligations including the European Convention of Human Rights and it appeared to be (as it indeed was) a concession to racial prejudice. What it was not,