Why Labour's hardline stance on immigration is playing into Nigel Farage's hands

Seven months after the ballot boxes were put back into storage, it looks like the real winners (besides, of course, the Liberal Democrats) were Nigel Farage and Reform. There may only be five of them on the green benches, but if political success is about getting your way and setting the terms of debate, then Farage and co are clearly well ahead of both Labour and the Tories at the moment.

That Kemi Badenoch would try to “out-Farage” Farage was depressingly predictable, though in the long run it may not matter that much. Badenoch looks like another Tory leader whose longevity will be measured against the contents of the salad drawer rather than a political force of permanence.

What I did not foresee was that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper would think that this race to the bottom was worth competing in.

Safe and legal ways to claim asylum

The names on the ministerial doors in the Home Office may have changed last year but the priorities and political posturing seem to be the same. Last week, it emerged that the government has set new rules meaning that any refugee entering the UK “illegally” will be barred from ever acquiring British citizenship. Let us pause for a moment to let that sink in.

In opposition, Cooper talked about the need to provide safe and legal routes for people coming here as refugees and asylum seekers. After all, we never find Ukrainians or Hong Kongers in small boats crossing the Channel. They don’t need to; their claims can be processed and approved before they come to the UK.

No such safe and legal routes exist for people fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria or Yemen. With no other option being open to them, they come irregularly. It is the lack of a legal system that creates the “illegal” problem. Bear in mind that, of those who come here in small boats, 90 per cent make asylum claims and, of those, approximately 75 per cent are confirmed as legitimate claims.

Not in government, but in power

One person who came to the UK by an irregular route and who was granted citizenship, in 2000, was a certain Mo Farah. Sir Mo (as we now know him) would not have qualified for citizenship on Cooper’s watch. After all, we can’t have these asylum seekers coming here and squeezing out our own national treasures, can we?

Cooper and Badenoch are clearly both spooked by the rise of Reform, but making British citizenship a more elusive prize for those who were desperate enough to risk crossing the English Channel only serves to validate the arguments of the far-right. You don’t defeat the Farages and Trumps of the world by agreeing with them.

The late Geoffrey Howe once famously spoke about being in government but not in power. The election in July appears to have put Farage and his colleagues in power without being in government. Both Labour and the Conservatives have to ask themselves whether allowing Reform to set the course of our politics will end well for any of us.

Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland