I think this just goes to show that a few months at RADA, or its equivalent, would have paid huge dividends.
He'd obviously been briefed, and practiced, and practiced, and still didn't get it right. Because he hadn't sufficiently 'incorporated' his character, and didn't quite understand the motivation.
So what he'd been told to aim for was a non-chromatic, nu-British line on immigration. But, sadly, he corpsed a bit, and supplemented it from his own experience. Hence what was quite clearly a complete gaffe.
I can see where he was supposed to be going with that one - but he did get it completely wrong.
I didn't even notice that, tbh. and I wonder if it's because it was exactly the sort of thing I'd expect him to say.
I'm more worried now, tbh, about the whole de-funding of the public sector. What came across really strongly for me, in the debate, and in the subsequent discussions afterwards, was the extent to which the whole 'volunteer society" is actually going to be public amenities delivered by wageless volunteers. As someone with dc in state education, and, yes, an NHS user, I am worried.
But that's off-topic ...