Small boats are a drop in the ocean when it comes to the immigration question. Labour should seek a two-year moratorium on new immigration, writes James Reed in today’s Notebook
A two-year moratorium on new immigration would give us a chance to think
A huge wave of immigration into the UK was initiated by Boris Johnson.
He famously promised to ‘take back control’ of borders, but actually did the opposite. Between January 2021 and June 2024 there was an unprecedented influx that saw 3.8m people granted UK visas. Fewer than a fifth came in as workers. Just 5.4 per cent were skilled and highly paid; seven per cent were on health and care visas; 4.6 per cent were on other work visas. The remaining 83 per cent came in as dependents, family, students or via humanitarian routes.
This phenomenon has become known as the ‘Boriswave’, apparently to the chagrin of our former Prime Minister. While levels have fallen somewhat since, the issue still looms large over our current politics. Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged earlier this year that immigration had ‘exploded’ in what he called a ‘one-nation experiment in open borders’.
Certainly, no-one voted for what was delivered under the last government. If the Brexit vote was for anything, it was for greater control of immigration, not less. It’s no wonder populism is on the rise. The question now is what the government can do to persuade the public that it has regained control of the system. There is a lot of focus on small boats, but these are a drop in the ocean in terms of the overall picture.
Here’s my advice: if a car is out of control, you stop it and fix it. I would make the case for a two-year moratorium on new immigration and the granting of new work visas and leave to remain. Our economy can cope, since there are currently 2.3 unemployed people on average for every one vacancy.
This would be a temporary but powerful solution, during which time the political parties could set out their stall on how they would deal with immigration going forward so the electorate can decide. The backlog of people who have arrived could be dealt with at the same time.
There’s a danger that without this kind of radical thinking, the social contract begins to fray. People are quite prepared to pay their taxes if they think their money is being spent to make the country better.
If they think the opposite, we risk getting sucked into an ever more toxic debate.
Doubling down
There is a critical need to support charities focused on women and girls, especially given that only 1.8 per cent of UK grants from trusts and foundations are directed to this sector. That’s why I encourage City AM readers to support my charity Big Give’s Women & Girls Match Fund, which runs from October 8 to 15 at www.biggive.org.
Your donation to any of the participating charities will be doubled by Big Give, helping them create lasting change for women and girls. I’d like to give my profound thanks to the Julia Rausing Foundation, who by providing £1m in match funding have made this campaign possible.
Attenborough does it again
I watched Sir David Attenborough’s excellent film Ocean on Disney Plus. It powerfully exposes how industrial fishing methods are destroying our seas, particularly thbige trawling of the seabed for scallops. As the film reminds us, there is an agreement which many countries have signed up to that 30 per cent of the ocean should become ‘no take’ zones by 2030. It’s up to us to make this happen.
Greens on the up?
Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new left-wing party appears to have self-destructed before it even launches, which can only be to the advantage of Sir Keir Starmer but more particularly the Green Party. They have an attractive new leader and there is clearly a place in our politics for an insurgent party to the left of Labour. After all, the combined polling for our two traditional parties of power has never been lower than it is today.
What I’ve been watching
The Offer, available to stream on Apple TV, is a tremendous biographical drama about the making of the landmark gangster film The Godfather. As a big Godfather fan, I enjoyed it immensely. Anyone running a family business should see it – more than once.
James Reed is chairman and CEO of Reed