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The Labour Party held their conference in Liverpool this week. Given immigration is, according to polling, one of the top three issues of concern for the British people, one might have thought that the issue would get an airing in the main auditorium. Alas, there was barely a whisper.
The couple of sentences uttered by the Shadow Home Secretary in her speech were devoted to the Channel as she steered clear of legal migration. It seems Labour share the Conservatives’ flawed belief that the public only care about the Channel Crisis. How wrong they are, as will become ever clearer in the year ahead as we approach the general election.
We took the opportunity to publish two papers scrutinising Labour’s plans for both legal and illegal migration.
With regard to legal migration, our conclusion was that Labour were clearly intent on not committing to reducing the massive scale of immigration. Their intention to tinker with the shape of the Migration Advisory Committee and give it a more authoritative role is a meaningless attempt to give the impression of action.
On illegal immigration, the key pillar of their plan, a new returns deal with the European Union, would almost certainly see the UK taking in far more asylum seekers than we do now. It seems Labour have decided that they are going to win the next election anyway so why risk stoking up trouble with an ultra-divisive issue like immigration. No matter that many Labour supporters beyond London strongly favour tough policies and reduced immigration. Not that the Conservatives are offering much more on legal migration and beyond Rwanda on the Channel crisis.
Talking of Rwanda, the Supreme Court sat to hear arguments on the Court of Appeal decision. We should know the outcome of their lordships’ deliberations sometime next month.
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. You can read the full version here.
Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday as soon as it is released.