What can labour do about immigration?

[CrispyEye]

Current poles showing Reform is way ahead of labour now. I’m so worried Reform will win the next general election if Labour don’t get a grip on this issue. And I say that as a Tory voter.

Realistically, what can Labour do, what should they be doing and do we think they will do it?

I wonder this too, could it be because many of their voters are immigrants and they think it’ll affect that?

But many hard working immigrants who have been here for years and pay their taxes are equally concerned about the current unsustainable levels as we are

It's too late. Labour and the Tories have lost public trust over their failure to deal with immigration numbers and bad policy.

Boat crossings have only gone up and the ECHR seems to be a catch all excuse to avoid even deporting criminals let alone stop the invasion.

Probably because a) it's a lot more difficult to tackle in practice than Reform would like you to believe, and b) because they know that, even if they were magically able to get the numbers down, it wouldn't actually fix any of the problems that the country is facing.

Because they support it. They've lost the working class a long time ago and now we'll have a Reform government because of it

Everyone acts like it can’t be done, but countries like Japan and Switzerland have strict immigration laws, and we could adopt some of these measures here. Everyone is too soft to do anything about it and actually put it in place though.

I noticed in the news today that Graham king, who owns hundreds of immigration hotels, has just become a billionaire. Great.

it’s a shit show all round and people have had enough of the left leaning media labelling everyone as a racist, if people want restrictions and a sensible immigration policy.

Reform will get in next time, I don’t work for them, not a member, but the writing is on the wall.

Net migration was completely unsustainable at around a million. If that drops to even 200 thousand it's still unsustainable. We have a housing crisis and there's only so much countryside to concrete over.

The approach was until today pretty much to use phrases that dismiss, ‘dog whistle’ ‘culture wars’ etc which is just irritating.

It’s mostly due to fear of losing careers and voters that they’re putting out a raft of headlines on immigration now. The local elections probably put another rocket up there and the polls.

I doubt it will work. The one thing they won’t tackle is what led to the Iranian case in today’s press.

Labour consider DH and I ‘rich’ as we both earn over £100k each, I can assure there’s nothing ‘tax efficient’ about having to hand over £6k month in tax. Knowing that if I work hard and earn more, I’ll just have to give an even larger chunk to HMRC.

We’re looking at countries where hard work is rewarded, as are a few of our friends.

I thought we were discussing the current Labour government, they certainly didn't just aim for the WC(?) vote in the last election, they are Centrists, at least they were, if they start emulating Reform, they will lose those Voters.

Deliveroo riders, vape shops, barbers etc are not essential. Many of whom aren't paying tax anyway and many are on benefits and not even working.

Absolutely, it is futile anyway, how are they going to out Reform, Reform, they are the Masters of hostility to immigration.

Well they have already returned 16’000 immigrants back to their home countries and where I work in East London, I have seen the police check immigration status on a few Deliveroo delivery men, so I think more of that is happening.

Having a quicker streamlined court process to process the applications including asylum would also help, akin to the American model. That would require money and a bill through parliament I suspect if there are changes to law. I never really understood why the previous Conservative government didn’t implement something like this instead of wasting all that public money on the Rwanda scheme.

You need to take away or make it more difficult to have jobs that are unofficial, or places that can exploit migrants who overstay visas or should not be here to begin with.

Licensing barbers shops, car washes, vape shops, nail bars and probably a few other things could help. Not allowing those with L plates to engage in commercial activities could be another. Having an obligation for delivery drivers to prove legitimacy before handing over food or something else to be delivered.

7 pages in and late. I’m amazed at what can be done on the topic of fentanyl drugs in Canada. With some US threats suddenly border security was ramped up, drones employed, the roles of conservation officers expanded plus other interventions all thought up and implemented seemingly over a 10 day span. Guess what it’s made a difference…
So again immigration seems impossible to tackle, no it isn’t. And yes the money is there.

A quicker system is just an easier sell for traffickers who will profit more from higher demand.

Plus higher numbers and deporting more for headlines is hugely expensive. Figures released in last week show this already.

@LlynTegid great ideas! Plus licensing means income to pay for the program. A program similar to others already in place.
Expand the duty of postal workers with responsibility to report dodgy set-ups.

Stop the boats, smash the gangs - it’s impossible unless they literally stop the boats, preferably before they’ve started.
Some measures like putting a strict cap on immigrants, processing them quicker will help a bit, but U.K. needs to get tougher , this country is still viewed as the land of milk and honey! The level of dissatisfaction among the public is so high now .

What I don't understand about the Benefits argument is why so many voted for Reform when they have stated the hardline they are going to take on Benefits so their policy includes losing your benefits after 4 months if you haven't found work and having to accept a job after 2 offers or you will lose your benefits. In Durham for example, 1 in 5 are in receipt of universal credit and yet Reform won many seats in the local council elections.

No 4- Totally unrealistic! What are they supposed to do, then? You’ll just end up with people sleeping rough, have high levels of crime as they steal to survive, and of course they’ll not be denied health treatments.
What is needed is to grant asylum to fewer immigrants , deport more, make U.K. unattractive to them . They can’t work while their claims are being processed but they could help in cleaning up litter and other essential but unattractive jobs.

The UK is the softest of soft touches. These migrants know it and why they pay human traffickers to get them here from France.

People who voted Reform did so because they want something done about the high levels of illegal immigrants coming here. As yet, we don’t know what their solution is!

I noticed in the news today that Graham king, who owns hundreds of immigration hotels, has just become a billionaire. Great.

It's been a lucrative gravy train for the privileged few.

You assume Reform voters are interested in facts - they aren't.

It wouldn't matter if Starmer stopped the boats tomorrow.

I wouldn't worry. They're getting stick for focusing on flags rather than stopping the boats and sorting other things important to people.

‘Smash the gangs’ is seeing it go in the opposite direction so that’s unlikely.