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In last week’s letter, we covered the Labour and Conservative manifestos and concluded that neither harboured policy proposals that were remotely up to the task of tackling runaway (legal) immigration or dealing with the reinvigorated illegal flow of Channel migrants and small boats. Indeed, our fear is that the likely next government’s policies will add fuel to the fire. As if to underline this, on Tuesday, over 800 migrants crossed the Channel, hitting the highest daily total in 18 months and bringing this year’s number to 12,313 – a staggering 18% jump from last year – with peak months still to come.
Reform’s manifesto
This week it was the turn of Reform UK to unveil their manifesto. While prompting a number of questions, the proposals on immigration certainly showed intent and determination. The main proposals were:
- Freeze all non-essential immigration
- Return immigrants arriving in small boats to France and leave the ECHR
- Bar student dependants
- End immediate access to benefits
- Raise the National Insurance to 20% for foreign workers
The ban on student dependants and the dependants of care workers is, of course, already in place. And unlikely to be reversed by a future Labour government (if they have any sense).
The proposed ‘freeze’ on non-essential immigration and zero net migration is a stronger stance from Reform (we believe necessarily so) than either of the two main parties. It is the sort of firm policy commitment that is essential if the catastrophic (a word we use regularly and advisedly) levels of immigration. However, we are also mindful of future migration from Hong Kong if China were to embark on another crack-down should Hong Kongers stir again. Remember, there are 3-5 million British National Overseas (BNOs) passport holders. Meanwhile, there is also Ukraine. What will happen once the fighting stops? How likely is it that the c200,000 who have come here will return to their homeland? Or, as we have said before, are they just as likely to be joined by those they left behind?
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday as soon as it is released.