CAST your mind back to Christmas 2018 when a few dozen migrants clambered into rickety dinghies off the French coast and headed for Britain.
Then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid flew back early from his family holiday to declare a “major incident”, MPs called for the Navy to be deployed and the public rightly demanded action.
GettyProtesters have rallied outside migrant hotels in recent weeks[/caption]
Figures around Sir Keir Starmer say he is finally recognising the scale of anger simmering through the populationReuters
You don’t need me to tell you what happened next: over the next seven years 174,000 more would-be asylum seekers crossed the English Channel.
Billions of pounds of taxpayer cash have been ploughed into snapping up hotels for them to live in, with free bed and board.
The lives of vulnerable men, women and children have been tragically lost.
And families feeling the pinch have watched agog as successive governments throw good money after bad.
Yesterday’s revelation that thousands of asylum seekers have been gambling with money from taxpayer-funded pre-paid cards was shocking.
But in many ways what is more depressing is that nobody is even really surprised any more.
All roads lead to migration
After years of hollow promises from politicians vowing to get a grip, voter patience is at breaking point — and the evidence backs it up.
Immigration has now leapfrogged the economy and health to become the number one issue for the electorate.
According to the pollster Scarlett Maguire, the public mood has taken a turn even in the last few months.
When trying to take the nation’s temperature in focus groups, it seems that all roads lead to migration.
“Even when I ask people’s views about housing or the NHS, almost always the voters will bring the conversation back to migration,” she tells me.
After years watching the Channel crisis unfold, it appears Brits have just about snapped. This does not bode well for Sir Keir Starmer.
In a recent YouGov poll, 55 per cent of us thought the Government was handling immigration “very badly”, and 22 per cent “fairly badly”.
Just 14 per cent thought the PM was doing a good job — a dismal verdict on his attempts so far to get a handle on the scandal.
Ministers like to crow about statistics they insist prove the opposite. They point to an increase in the number of deportations, or that spending on asylum is down by a third.
All credible achievements, but, as one Starmer aide puts it: “It’s the visibility which is killing us. People see the boats, they see the migrant hotels and they just can’t believe it.”
It is a point Labour MPs — once terrified to touch illegal migration for fear of upsetting their base — are starting to make.
Even those on the soft Left of the party are becoming more vocal, because the impact on their constituents is impossible to ignore.
That senior backbencher Meg Hillier publicly took Starmer to task on homeless families having to compete for housing with asylum seekers reflects the shifting public mood.
Or as one Labour MP tells me: “You are always going to get a few left-wing back-benchers that see controlling our borders as a right-wing concept, which is clearly mental.
“But the party is waking up to the fact that the public is losing patience.
“The fact that many of my colleagues are talking about European Convention on Human Rights reform is quite something — it would have been unimaginable even a few years ago.”
The clock is ticking because currently it is Nigel Farage who is laughing all the way to the ballot box.
Jack Elsom
Figures around Starmer say he is finally recognising the scale of anger simmering through the population.
As protesters have rallied outside migrant hotels in recent weeks, Downing Street has been at pains to stress it understands their concerns. One insider says: “Keir has become alive to the rage.
A year ago he was calling people far-right. You don’t hear him say that any more.”
Some in the Labour tribe hope this is the moment the PM finally grasps the nettle and gets radical.
Yes, he has signed a returns deal with France and inked various other agreements aimed at flushing out the smuggling gangs.
But to quench the public’s thirst for action, there is a sense among many Labour figures that none of this cuts the mustard.
One loyalist MP tells me: “They do get how bad it is. But that now needs to feed into radical policy, with urgency.
“The French deal is genuinely very impressive but it will take time to come through. And we don’t have that much time.”
The clock is ticking because currently it is Nigel Farage who is laughing all the way to the ballot box.
The public wants radical
The Reform leader’s hardline stance on migration has earned him a commanding lead in the polls.
Some 36 per cent of voters say he is best placed to slash migration, compared to 11 per cent for Labour and a mere six per cent for the Tories.
His uncompromising promise to tow the boats back to France has gone down a storm with supporters, but met with mocking derision by detractors. They mock him at their peril.
As one down-to-earth Labour figure put it: “We’re idiots if we think the way to beat Farage is by saying his ideas are too radical — we need to understand, the public WANTS radical.”
Some of the hardliners in the party want a Thatcher-style “purge of the wets” — with Attorney General Lord Hermer top of their list.
For decades much of the country has felt concerns about immigration have been suppressed Westminster politicians.
Many are now finding their voice for the first time.
And even the ones who are not speaking publicly will make their feelings known at the ballot box.
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
