Now the dust has settled on the European elections, it is worth reflecting on some very nasty facts. Not far off a million people voted for a neo-Nazi party. The UK is now represented in Europe by two openly racist politicians. This electoral breakthrough is worth around £1m a year to the British National Party. Much has been made of the collapse of the Labour vote allowing the BNP to win seats; and of course the general public disgust at politics also contributed. But there is no escaping the fact that the BNP vote is an anti-immigration vote – and Labour needs to learn hard lessons from that too.
Immigration may have been eclipsed recently by the economic and political crisis, but both the ‘British jobs for British workers’ episode and the triumph of Joanna Lumley and the Gurkhas show it hasn’t lost its ability to wrongfoot ministers. However, these clumsy political episodes disguise the fact that the policy handling of migration has been much improved recently. The Home Office has come a long way from its ‘not fit for purpose’ days. Measures such as the new asylum model, the points-based system, new border arrangements and electronic entrance and exit controls are all starting to have an impact.
This policy architecture means ministers can demonstrate they have a grip on immigration – a political imperative given public concern over the scale of migration in recent years. The IPPR has calculated that during the Labour years net immigration has exceeded 1.5 million. Economists and business leaders point out that this has done no damage to the country’s prosperity – quite the reverse. And the new measures, if they are too cumbersome and inflexible, may damage economic recovery. But let’s face it, the electorate needs a breather, even if the economy doesn’t. So, politically, it is good news that the latest figures show net migration starting to fall – even if this is mostly a result of the recession rather than the new controls.
The problem is that Labour, at the highest levels, is stuck in an ultra-defensive mindset about migration. Ministers still don’t seem to trust their own policies – and are constantly seeking to tighten them. They have largely given up trying to make the case for migration in public, and even taken to trashing their early years record in an attempt to appease public hostility. At times, the political strategy has come perilously close to being ‘yes, we know we messed up in the past, but just look how tough we are being now!’.
The European results show just how defeatist this strategy is. Labour cannot out tough the extremists, however macho it tries to be. Meanwhile, there are many people, a lot of whom are natural Labour supporters, who see the benefits of migration and don’t like to see migrants stigmatised. They’ve been deeply disappointed – even disgusted – by the tone and direction of recent years. In the middle is the bulk of the public who are alarmed, rather than reassured, by all the tough talk. Understandably, they take the line that if the government is so panicked by migration, they are right to be too.
A robust and credible policy infrastructure is in place. Now there needs to be a much stronger articulation of the reasons why migration is needed. In a globalised world, migration is both a fact of life and clearly beneficial for open and dynamic economies like the UK. Unless politicians who understand the benefits of migration are brave enough to speak up, the debate will always be dominated by those who seek a retreat into the past. Ministers need to be taking a lead in this area, not being constantly on the defensive against its critics in the rightwing press and Migration Watch. The endgame of this approach is now clear. It feeds into a poisonous narrative that leads to the hideous spectacle of Nick Griffin MEP.