This week the Conservative Party has been whipping up anti-immigration hysteria. The party has taken a deeply disappointing backwards step in the immigration debate. Labour will, according to the Tories, allow “unfettered, unlimited immigration” that will lead to a rise of 840,000 people a year coming into Britain which Michael Gove said would make the UK “less safe”. It sounded like dog whistle politics, as low as Farage’s “breaking point” fear mongering poster.
The Conservatives are trying to make immigration a central dividing line between them and Labour, as the Labour party is yet to make its policy on immigration clear and is clearly divided on the issue of free movement within the EU. The Conservatives are committed to implementing a new immigration system based on bringing in people with the skills the country needs, this is not in itself unreasonable.
