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Ukip are rising, the Tories are panicking – can Labour step up to the plate?

Anna Sonny, 17 October 2014

David Cameron announced yesterday that the EU has one last chance to reform on immigration, and that he would attempt to put a brake on the free movement of people within the bloc. The Prime Minister’s speech, given in Rochester and Strood, where former Tory MP Mark Reckless’s defection to Ukip triggered a by-election, was a desperate attempt to stop Ukip from gaining more ground in Westminster.

Last week, Douglas Carswell became Ukip’s first MP. Carswell can now table Ukip parliamentary motions, lay Ukip amendments to legislation and hold the Prime Minister to account during Prime Minister’s Questions. And Cameron will be responsible for allowing Ukip to enter parliament and pose a serious threat a Tory majority in the next election because he failed to unite his party on the subject of Europe.

Cameron’s promises to curb immigration at the domestic level would certainly require treaty change at the European level. Currently member states are only allowed to put brakes on immigration during emergencies, such as natural disasters or acts of war. And although this is looking like a state of emergency for the Tories, EU leaders will be reluctant to put forward a treaty change, with all the bureaucracy it requires and the possible referendums it could trigger – as the question over a European Constitution did – and grumbling over the British tendency to treat the EU like an à la carte menu.

The British problem with the EU is mainly sovereignty and bureaucracy, but these issues always seem to dovetail into immigration. The language and tone of the immigration debate from Ukip’s side has at times been unsavoury but they are getting more and more votes. The Tory’s inadequate, knee-jerk reaction to this is to swing right and make anxious promises that are unlikely to yield any real results.

Can Labour address the issue without coming across as either anti-immigrant or palpably nervous?

During a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference, Naushabah Khan, the candidate who is contesting the seat in Rochester and Strood, said that she “agreed 100% about the positive economic impact of migration”, but also added: “When you are talking on the doorstep people cannot relate to that. It does not affect their lives directly but they can see hospital waiting lists and housing waiting lists they cannot get on to.”

Khan makes it clear that Labour needs to tackle these issues at ground level by lifting pressure on public services, that increases in population need to be met with increases in investment in infrastructure. This seems to be a much more practical and realistic response to Ukip’s threat on the issue of immigration than the Prime Minister’s.

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