The Tories remain hamstrung on migration

Yahoo

29-01-2025

Kemi Badenoch had a big choice to make before Prime Minister's Questions today.
She could have chosen to press Keir Starmer on those shocking official projections about further immigration-fuelled population growth or opted instead to hammer him on Labour's already very dodgy economic record.
The first subject undoubtedly had more potential emotional resonance, especially among right-of-centre voters flirting with the idea of jumping on board the Reform bandwagon. But the second had the advantage of uniting her entire parliamentary party around its traditional objections to Labour's tendency to over-tax and over-regulate.
This is one of the key narratives that the Conservatives hope to build in the public mind over the next few years – how Labour is dragging down the economy because of its ideological flaws and prejudices.
And it was this latter line of attack that Badenoch followed with a perfectly serviceable degree of competence. Pointing out that last week Starmer had not been on top of the detail of his Education Bill, she then tested him on the specifics of his new Employment Bill, which she branded 'an Unemployment Bill'.
Badenoch used the element of surprise a leader of the opposition has in these sessions to test Starmer's knowledge of particular clauses in the legislation currently being steered through Parliament by the leftist Deputy PM Angela Rayner. The Tory leader cited its estimated £5bn regulatory cost to business, the growing concerns of the small business sector about it, the extra sick pay costs it loads onto employers, the instant employment tribunal rights it grants to new staff and the reduction in the notice period required before workers go on strike.
Starmer seemed buffeted by this blizzard of detail and tried a variety of methods to fend Badenoch off. First he mentioned the accountancy giant PwC rating Britain the second best place in the world to invest and the IMF upgrading its UK growth forecast. Then he donned the mantle of an unapologetic old Labourite by declaring: 'We believe in giving people proper dignity and protection at work.'
Next, he claimed that the measures in the Bill would be 'good for workers and growth' without explaining how raising the costs and risks inherent in employing people could possibly be that.
Finally, Starmer used his bully pulpit and his home crowd weight of numbers – 402 Labour MPs versus 121 Tories – against Badenoch by resorting to some fairly mindless abuse: 'She is talking nonsense…if she carries on like this she is going to be the next lettuce.' (a reference to a tabloid newspaper's depiction of Liz Truss back in the autumn of 2022).
Badenoch by contrast didn't have a memorable closing soundbite, relying instead on pointing out that Starmer was backing measures that obviously fail his own purported growth test and asking: 'What's the point?'
So, today was another instance of attritional political combat: unspectacular punches to the prime ministerial body rather than the kind of rhetorical knockout blows to the jaw that millions of us would love to see Starmer suffering.
Right at the end of PMQs, the Tory backbencher Andrew Rosindell tried out the alternative line of attack, the one about the Office for National Statistics projecting that the population will hit 72.5 million in just seven years thanks to ongoing mass immigration. 'Who voted for that? There's no mandate for such colossal increases,' complained Rosindell.
Starmer's reply was confident and brutal: Rosindell should talk to his own leader, he said, because net immigration had 'gone through the roof' under the Tories and Badenoch had been one of those cheering it on. There had been a loss of control under the last government and Labour would restore control, he added. It is an understatement to observe that had Badenoch chosen this line of questioning it would probably not have gone well for her.
Hence the Tories remain hamstrung on what pollsters tell us is the number one concern of their potential voters. Until she has new policy ready to roll on this, Badenoch's angles of attack are going to remain severely constrained.
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