To think Starmer has shot himself in the foot.

The country is on the path of destruction. Visitors will just stop coming. We're in managed decline, yet still pay billions to put illegal immigrants in hotels. It's absolutely bonkers.

I’m sure some tourists feel the same. It’s not pleasant anymore so I spend my money elsewhere and save myself the stress of being mugged, harrassed etc. I can’t be the only one and I believe money from tourism will dry up unless the gov get a grip it..

Of course tourists feel the same. If they are spending a lot of money to come and visit London only for their phones and wallets etc to be snatched when they go sight seeing, they’re hardly going to recommend it as a holiday destination.
I beg our friends from Korea and Japan to be really, really careful when walking about London, but as it doesn’t happen hardly at all in their countries, they don’t pay attention.
One woman had £1000 pinched from her bag and the other left her phone on the table in a cafe and of course that was gone in seconds.
Sadiq Khan just denies it’s happening.

I’m sure some tourists feel the same. It’s not pleasant anymore so I spend my money elsewhere and save myself the stress of being mugged, harrassed etc. I can’t be the only one and I believe money from tourism will dry up unless the gov get a grip it..

Of course tourists feel the same. If they are spending a lot of money to come and visit London only for their phones and wallets etc to be snatched when they go sight seeing, they’re hardly going to recommend it as a holiday destination.
I beg our friends from Korea and Japan to be really, really careful when walking about London, but as it doesn’t happen hardly at all in their countries, they don’t pay attention.
One woman had £1000 pinched from her bag and the other left her phone on the table in a cafe and of course that was gone in seconds.
Sadiq Khan just denies it’s happening.

What happened to Smash the Gangs anyway, have they given up on that?

I think very few people disagree with the need for immigration reform. What many people including myself disagree with is how Starmer sold it. The rhetoric used is dangerous and places individual immigrants and those perceived to be immigrants in the firing line.

There was an opportunity to say Labour will rebalance the economy, reduce net migration, reactivate some of the economically inactive Brits to fill the gaps without the sensationalist Daily Express headline rhetoric. It sounded more like Trumps America than Britain.

This is not a road any of us should want to go down. How will he announce benefit reform? Will it be a big statement accusing benefit claimants of being a ‘drain’, call Britain an ‘island of scroungers’ and set them up for attack when its previous policy decisions not the individual benefit claimants responsible.

I think very few people disagree with the need for immigration reform. What many people including myself disagree with is how Starmer sold it. The rhetoric used is dangerous and places individual immigrants and those perceived to be immigrants in the firing line.

There was an opportunity to say Labour will rebalance the economy, reduce net migration, reactivate some of the economically inactive Brits to fill the gaps without the sensationalist Daily Express headline rhetoric. It sounded more like Trumps America than Britain.

This is not a road any of us should want to go down. How will he announce benefit reform? Will it be a big statement accusing benefit claimants of being a ‘drain’, call Britain an ‘island of scroungers’ and set them up for attack when its previous policy decisions not the individual benefit claimants responsible.

Honestly, I like KS more because of this and I’d never vote reform in a million years. I’m politically homeless. I voted Labour as a young woman in the new Labour days, voted Lib Dem in the coalition years and in 2015 in an attempt to keep them in the coalition. I voted Remain (what I really wanted was a future vote on further political integration and a level of reform of the UK system so that we actually used the rules available to us within the EU, which enabled us to send anyone workless home after 3 months, to reform our system to introduce contribution and residence elements for benefits, to ensure that we required appropriate qualifications for occupations where necessary in the same way other EU countries did to protect their own qualified people, and to stop benefits fraud that led to benefit monies being paid to Poland and Romania but no one offered me that option and I thought the status quo was ok if not amazing). I voted for Theresa May over Jeremy Corbyn (and I thought her “dementia tax” was and still is the fairest way to fund social care - no one else will touch this now), but spoiled my ballot rather than vote for Bojo (clearly unsuitable for power) or the alternatives (lib dems fully immersed in gender, wanting to rejoin the EU on any terms and saying they didn’t want a coalition with either party but wanted to win outright seemed to me to be a vote for total fantasy). I also spoiled my ballot last time around as I just didn’t feel like anyone had won my vote, the Lib Dems were still in fantasyland and a still a bit of a middle class protest vote that tells lots of people what they want to hear (yes, carers are great, publicity stunts are funny, but where are the hard choices?), Mr Davy’s explanation as to his stint as minister for the Post Office was pretty unconvincing to me and Labour wouldn’t win in my consituency anyway.

I feel as if I have always voted in a pretty centrist (sometimes centre left, sometimes centre right) way. I actually think that the liberal groupthink of the last 10-15 years has moved the centre ground and it has moved me to the right, rather than me moving much myself. I feel pretty disillusioned and frustrated.

I want a party who is capable of telling the truth and making hard choices. The “strangers” stuff isn’t really to my taste, but neither do I think it is full on Enoch Powell - there’s a truth in it, which is that we haven’t expected enough on integration and contribution within our immigration system and we’ve had open borders for the last couple of years despite people voting against it, so people are feeling as is there is a detriment and lack of cohesion to society which is what was meant.

Immigration is a series of hard choices and should be based on pragmatism and competence. I don’t think they should have made immigration harder for high earners and people making a strong contribution, but otherwise it’s a step in the right direction.

I don’t need my politicians to make me feel more virtuous and better about myself. I don’t care if they change their mind based on evidence. I need them to make a pragmatic decision as to what is best for our country in the long term and be competent running the country.

What happened to Smash the Gangs anyway, have they given up on that?

Illegal crossings are higher than ever at this time of year, apparently.

And yet we have anti semitic people alive and kicking in the Labour Party. It was open and rampant once upon a time in the party but now muted because clearly not tolerated as it used to be. Make no bones about it, there are many anti semitic people still thriving in Labour, it's just that they hide it well.

Farage has very successfully managed to pin the blame for everything on immigration. It may only be 3rd or even 4th priority for many, but high immigration does impact NHS and housing etc.

It beggars belief that people still have their fingers in their ears over immigration. The country has destroyed itself.

Even with this new policy immigration will still be about 500k net (and ever increasing boat migrants of undocumented or unvetted young men ). That's a big city every year.

the number one issue isn’t the NHS, isn’t the housing crises, isn’t the war in Gaza or Ukraine, isn’t concerns with Trumps chaos,

Yet only nine months ago the two top issues were the NHS and cost of living with immigration third. What’s changed?

No it's not. Voters for far right parties need to take responsibility for their choices like anyone else and stop pretending that someone giving a fairly shrewd character assessment of Farage is forcing them to vote for a "party" that uses proven racist rhetoric. Not liking being called a racist doesn't give immunity against actually being racist or voting for a quasi fascist party.

Why is the chase always on to capture Reform voters? They make up less than 20% of the electorate at best. The winning strategy is to play to the centre and have policies which appeal a bit to the left and a bit to the right of this.

We have the 2 majority parties chasing a small demographic of voters. As soon as one of them realise they’ve forgotten 80% of the potential electorate which includes the middle class workers paying a large chunk of the tax, and start making bold policies that will capture even half of that number, Reform will implode and Farage will have to think up his next vehicle for self promotion. The other major party will be dead for at least a decade.

If the LibDems can get their shit together and get some press coverage they can really make a play that they are different and have policies which will propel us out of stagnation so people start actively feeling their lives are improving.

Labour are banking on their core voters having nowhere else to go, as did the Tory’s. As soon as there’s a sensible place to go, they will go. The sensible Labour and Conservatives should defect to LibDems or create a new party.

He is not trying to out Reform Reform

He is listening to vast majority of voters the number one issue isn’t the NHS, isn’t the housing crises, isn’t the war in Gaza or Ukraine, isn’t concerns with Trumps chaos,

Labour have finally acknowledged that it’s immigration (as it is in the most western countries) immigration time and time again is coming up as a concern the left can no longer bury their heads in the sand about

Starmer just doesn’t particularly have political appeal. Put someone who can spin it better (like Blair could or Andy Burnham can) and you will have voters return

thats not to say Reform will lose their appeal over night or the Tories won’t pull it together before the next election (though I think it’s more likely to be the one after)