Labour has shot itself in the foot on immigration – but it's not too late to change course

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party has won 10 councils, 677 new councillors and two new mayors. In yet another lurch to the right – both Labour and Conservative faced dire losses.

No one is to blame but our government and those who came before it. Over the last five years, we’ve seen the language and policies towards migrants become increasingly more hostile and divisive – with politicians from many parties mimicking the language of the far-right. 

The Labour and Conservative parties have opened the door to far-right politics, and their concessions have only emboldened Reform UK. You could even say that by parroting their anti-immigrant rhetoric – our government has been doing the legwork for Reform UK.

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Politicians who claim to represent working people are coming out with rhetoric which is virtually indistinguishable from the far-right. Worse still, our prime minister, a human rights lawyer, is overseeing some of the most regressive, anti-free speech and anti-migrant policies in British history, so intent is he on beating Reform at their own game.

Keir Starmer’s government has doubled down on anti-migrant language and policies, and is competing for the title of the most anti-migrant government in British history. In recent weeks, they announced plans to publish a “league table” of criminality by nationality – a move straight out of the far-right’s playbook. Let’s be clear – this isn’t about keeping anyone safe. It’s just the same old tried and tested technique of scapegoating as a means of distraction.

The government’s latest Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill holds on to multiple cruel measures, including increased detention powers and reduced protections for survivors of modern slavery. And continues the dangerous – and deeply offensive – rhetoric that people searching for safety in this country are criminals.

But it gets worse. A few months ago, Labour celebrated achieving the most amount of removals in five years, followed by rebranding their anti-migrant social media posts in Reform UK’s colours.

This is just a snapshot of the many examples that you could be forgiven for thinking were policies pushed by Reform UK. But as the local election results show, the strategy isn’t working. It isn’t convincing people to support Labour, and it never will. 

Labour is on a path to ruin. In their insistence on “stopping the boats”, they have secured their own demise, ensuring their core voter base jump ship in record time. Not only will there be more deaths on their watch, but they will continue to lose those who still hold some hope for the integrity of the party.

When they take one step to the right, Reform takes two more. We saw this immediately with Reform UK’s first mayor for Greater Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyns, who used her acceptance speech to call for asylum seekers to be housed in tents. No one should be housed in tents. And no one needs to be, but that isn’t the point: the point is to deepen the cruelty towards those who come to our country looking for a better life.

As a migrants’ rights organisation, we’re worried about our clients and the communities we serve. We simply can’t afford for our immigration policies to become even more divisive. We can’t afford to have our leading politicians continuously concede ground to the far right.

Instead of investing in the services that prevent poverty, illness and homelessness, ministers are fanning the flames of division and hoping we don’t notice the chaos they’ve created. This government, like those before it, would rather turn us against each other than tackle real problems.

But there is still time to change the tide before the next general election. Instead of allowing hateful policies to dictate the narrative around migrants for the next four years, this is the time to draw a line and make it clear that the far-right will no longer dictate the arena of debate when it comes to migration. Now is the time to focus on what matters, to foster genuine inclusivity and improve the real issues facing our country, and not to become a shameless party hellbent on scapegoating.

The most recent data shows that immigration is not a negative in the eyes of the majority of people. Instead of falling into the trap of sloganeering, our government must offer positive solutions to immigration. Keir Starmer needs to take control of immigration – not by controlling numbers, but by being bold enough to fight the far-right’s narrative. It’s what British people across the UK want.  

Instead of desperately – and embarrassingly – trying to appease Reform and the likes of Donald Trump by pandering to anti-immigrant agendas, Labour needs to be honest about the real issues which face us all today. We need to reverse the cuts to the poor – the pensions and disability benefits cuts and the two-child benefit cap. We need to fix our NHS, our schools and build affordable housing, and the answer to funding that lies in taxing the rich, not forcing the poorest and most vulnerable to choose between death in their home countries, death in the Channel or death at the hands of our inhumane Home Office.

Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah is communications director at JCWI.

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