Starmer Comes Clean on Open Borders Experiment

Ladies and gentlemen, we are at a watershed moment in British history. For the first time since its inception under Tony Blair in 1997, a sitting Prime Minister has ‘forgotten’ to lie about the nature of mass immigration. Poised at the Downing Street lectern with the ill-deserved confidence of the Pillsbury Doughboy promoting the latest doughnut diet, Keir Starmer admitted last week that the practice was deliberate:

“This happened by design, not accident. Policies were reformed deliberately to liberalise immigration. Brexit was used for that purpose, to turn Britain into a one-nation experiment in open borders. ‘Global Britain’ – remember that slogan? That is what they meant.”

Starmer had little choice but to address the matter. The recently revised ONS figures showed that net migration for 2023 was closer to a million than the 740,000 previously quoted, and had already prompted a response from the other party leaders. Keen to draw a line on 14 years of Tory mismanagement, Kemi Badenoch offered a mea culpa:

“As the new party leader, I want to acknowledge that we made mistakes. Yes, some of these problems are long standing – this is a collective failure of political leaders from all parties over decades – but on behalf of the Conservative party it is right that I as the new leader accept responsibility, and say truthfully we got this wrong.”

Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage meanwhile was more circumspect (as he tends to be on immigration these days), calling the figures ‘horrendous’ – a legacy for which the Tories would ‘never be forgiven’.

It’s easy to understand why Starmer might go on the offensive over migration as a welcome distraction from his own disastrous approval ratings, and the attempt—quite rightly—to associate the open borders fiasco with Conservative Party governments. He aspires to outflank a buoyant Farage, whose Reform UK is rumoured to be expecting a $100M (€95M) boost from X CEO Elon Musk. Yet for a man so wedded to immigration his rhetoric is surprising: now he says open borders Britain was ‘unforgivable,’ adding:

“Mark my words, this government will turn the page”.

British MPs tend to show up about two decades late to the party on the major issues of the day: Islam, grooming gangs, immigration etc. And while Westminster’s response to the damning ONS figures has been as diverse as a Guardian columnists’ convention (and about as credible), Starmer has added a new wrinkle to the practice. Conservatives tend to talk tough on immigration on the eve of elections, Starmer has made the mistake of shooting his mouth off while comfortably in office. He may wind up regretting it.

Of course, the hypocrisy involved here is off the scale: a double, if not a triple shuffle. It’s one thing for Kemi Badenoch to wash away 14 years of wilful government negligence with the non-apology ‘we got this wrong’, but it’s quite another for Tony Blair’s successor to act as if mass immigration had nothing to do with the Labour Party. The great irony is that ‘regularly texting Tony’ has been advising Starmer to get a grip on immigration, to ‘close off the avenues’ of the populist right (and naturally, because it might be the perfect pretext for ID cards). What a shame he never thought of that when he was in office.

In fact, if we were to believe the main party leaders, Nigel Farage and Reform UK would probably be the most liberal of the three – anyone smell a rat there?

Starmer, of course, is not going to do anything about immigration. We know this from what Starmer has repeatedly told us:

• “We have to make the case for the benefits of migration, the benefits of free movement.”

• “If somebody is coming to do a job and it needs to be done and it has been advertised locally beforehand with nobody able to do it, then most people would say ‘I accept that.’”

• "We welcome migrants, we don't scapegoat them. Low wages, poor housing, poor public services, are not the fault of migrants... we have to make the case for the benefits of migration.”

• "The Labour Party has been a bit scared of making the positive case for immigration for quite a number of years. And I think we need to turn that round.”

• “Family members [from other countries] should be able to live together” in Britain, and that the nation “couldn’t function” without the flow of people seeking work here.

Then, there’s the voting that he does in the privacy of the House of Commons. According to analysis by the Henry Jackson Society, Starmer has repeatedly voted against stricter asylum measures. In fact, he did so 14 times while in opposition, from 2015 to 2022.

During lsat week’s speech, the Prime Minister claimed that “the vast majority of people who entered this country did so to plug gaps in our workforce”. Although, judging by the stark reality of the bottom line, one might be tempted to conclude they came here to ponce instead. According to the Centre of Migration Control, almost 1.7 Million migrants in Britain are out of work, and costing the taxpayer £8.5 Billion per annum. In addition, Nigel Farage has just revealed that only 1 in 5 legal migrants are working - how’s that boosting the economy?

As though this were not enough, the tangible evidence against an anti-immigration Labour Party is considerable, with Sir Keir already ruling out a sensible legal migration cap. Furthermore, the small boat crossings are up 23% under his tenure, necessitating the housing of 6,000 extra illegals in hotels - a practice he promised to end.

More than any of this however, is the stark reality of consistent Westminster deceit. Every single government since Blair has talked tough on immigration whenever it was politically expedient, but have mysteriously led the British people down down the same incendiary pathway of demographic replacement, hot on the heels of Sir Tony. Starmer has absolutely zero credibility in terms of changing that policy.

Where does this leave us? Nowhere. Except for this: in drawing the line in the sand and admitting the con, Starmer can now be held to account when he fails. “Mark my words, this government will turn the page” he said.

Mark my words - he won’t! But then again, he won’t be serving two terms either.

Frank Haviland is the Editor of The New Conservative, and the author of Banalysis: The Lie Destroying the West.

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This piece was first published in The European Conservative, and is reproduced by kind permission.