Keir Starmer needs to show he’s serious about his pledge for an immigration system ‘based on compassion and dignity’
Perhaps it was a promise he couldn’t keep; it was almost certainly one he never intended to. Few were surprised when Sir Keir Starmer ditched his pledge from his leadership campaign to “defend free movement as we leave the EU”. There was little Labour could do to achieve this as the Tories pushed through the Brexit deal enabled by their 2019 majority.
But Labour’s strategy and policy on immigration still need plenty of work. Starmer has inherited a party whose membership is more passionately pro-immigration than at any point in its history, and an electoral map that seems to demand the opposite, which is why Starmer both made his pledge on free movement and why he dropped it.
Continue reading…Keir Starmer needs to show he’s serious about his pledge for an immigration system ‘based on compassion and dignity’Perhaps it was a promise he couldn’t keep; it was almost certainly one he never intended to. Few were surprised when Sir Keir Starmer ditched his pledge from his leadership campaign to “defend free movement as we leave the EU”. There was little Labour could do to achieve this as the Tories pushed through the Brexit deal enabled by their 2019 majority.But Labour’s strategy and policy on immigration still need plenty of work. Starmer has inherited a party whose membership is more passionately pro-immigration than at any point in its history, and an electoral map that seems to demand the opposite, which is why Starmer both made his pledge on free movement and why he dropped it. Continue reading…