Labour is in the last-chance saloon on immigration

The mainstream left once understood the importance of strong border controls

Photo: ImmigrationEnfIO, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Britain, 1960-something. The country has, over the previous two decades, taken in a significant number of economic migrants, and debate has broken out over the ability of local communities to cope. Tensions are simmering. A prominent politician stands before an audience of the party faithful and media, and warns of the consequences of inaction. ‘[W]e must face the fact that … there are towns and cities in Britain which are being asked today to absorb a degree of immigration on a scale beyond their social capacity to absorb,’ he says. ‘I want to say to you, with all the emphasis at my command, that … we have a duty to act here, and that failure to fulfil that duty might lead in a very short time to a social explosion in this country of the kind that we have seen abroad.’

Perhaps your mind conjured up an image of Enoch Powell while reading those words? If so, hold that thought while picturing the next scene.

It is 2013. An avowed Eurosceptic – a rabble-rouser, some call him – appears as a panellist on the BBC’s Question Time programme. In a discussion about EU free movement, he says, ‘The people that are coming to this country are economic migrants who are … looking for work. But … they are lowering the rates and conditions for those people that are working here … The simple way round it is to say, “If you want to come to this country, you have a work permit.” You couldn’t go to Australia without a work permit. You couldn’t go to Cuba without a work permit. So why should people come to Britain without a work permit?’

Maybe here you thought of Nigel Farage?