𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Clearly the punters are unimpressed by Labour’s latest anti-illegal immigration offering. YouGov’s most recent poll, conducted over Sunday and Monday – by which point Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reforms were known – has Reform eight points ahead of Labour. YouGov has Reform increasing its lead by one point to 27%, with Labour steady on 19%. Most interesting perhaps the plucky Greens are up two points, now sitting on 17%.

This comes amid plans to deport asylum seekers to ‘safe’ countries and extend the time they can apply for permanent residency to 20 years. Their status must also be reviewed every 30 months. Fair’s fair, Mahmood gets a B+ for effort. Still, her plan is doomed. For starters, you can’t out-Reform Reform, and certainly not without alienating much of the Labour Left, both on the Commons benches and in the coffee shops of Mornington Crescent.

Already the Labour benches are enraged. What are the chances the legislation gets watered down by the time it hits the Lords, who may also amend it? Then come the courts. Without fully disapplying the European Convention on Human Rights and attendant legislation, the judges still have discretion – for example – to decide what a ‘safe’ country is.

Just as the Tories’ Rwanda gimmick ended up bogged down in the courts, what’s the betting Mahmood’s illegal migration plans suffer exactly the same fate? Mahmood may tell Reform leader Nigel Farage to “sod off” but, quite frankly, this might come to haunt the Home Secretary when her own MPs and the judges do the same to her!

Finally, if there is any hope among Mahmood’s allies that this may help her case to succeed much-beloved PM Sir Keir Starmer, I’ve got some beachfront property in Wolverhampton you might be interested in. If Health Secretary Wes Streeting is not Left-wing enough for Labour MPs and members, what will they think of Mahmood after this?

Only by ditching the ECHR in full, stopping the small boats at source, and frankly dramatically cutting legal immigration will the UK’s immigration crisis start to be fixed. And which is the only party ready, willing and able to do that? Hint: it ain’t Labour!