The fightback starts here. Labour is starting the working week with an onslaught on Nigel Farage’s party on the issue that Reform UK voters care about most: immigration.
And perhaps having concluded that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers are brazenly using the tactics of Mr Farage’s buddy Donald Trump to attack him.
First, the Home Office has unleashed a publicity blitz boasting about the number of arrests of illegal immigrants and raids on restaurants and takeaways, car washes, nail bars and vape shops.
To hammer home the message that the numbers are up massively on last year, when the Tories were in power, a video of Border Force officers banging down doors and slapping on the cuffs has been released.
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It’s ahead of a three-way Commons showdown between Labour, the Tories and Reform UK, when the government’s flagship immigration legislation, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, has its second reading.
Mr Farage has put down an amendment to chuck out the bill because control of the UK’s borders is undermined by membership of the European Convention on Human Rights and there are no proposals to deport illegal migrants or foreigners in UK jails.
Not to be outdone, she hopes, Kemi Badenoch has an amendment – which will be selected, unlike Mr Farage’s – which slams Labour for ditching Tory migration laws and complains the bill says nothing about curbing legal migration.
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Later, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will release the first footage of migrant deportation flights removing foreign criminals. Then it’s reported she’ll join a raid to stamp out illegal working, no doubt clad in a flak jacket and hard hat.
The deportation video, it’s reported, will show staff packing bags at a migrant removal centre, then escorting returnees, one with his hands shackled and escorted by seven staff, off a bus and up the stairway of a charter jet.
If this aggressive campaigning all sounds very Trumpian, that’s because it is. Last week the prime minister adapted the US president’s “drill, baby, drill” mantra to “build, baby, build” as he hit out at “blockers” thwarting Labour’s growth agenda.
Like President Trump, Sir Keir has propelled immigration to the top of his agenda, as his government faces a threat from Mr Farage that has caused consternation among the 89 Labour MPs with Reform UK in second place.
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Just look at the opinion polls. Last week’s Sky News/YouGov poll showed Reform UK on 25%, Labour on 24% and the Tories on 21%, putting Mr Farage and his party in the lead for the first time since the general election.
The most recent poll, by Opinium for The Observer at the weekend, though it put Labour on 27%, Reform UK on 26% and the Tories on 22%, suggested that it’s immigration that’s proving attractive to floating voters.
Among those backing reform UK, 37% said it was because of its hardline policies on immigration and border control. And among people considering backing Reform UK, 72% said it was because of the party’s immigration and borders policies – more than twice the percentage for any other policy issue.
At the election last July, Reform UK said it would freeze non-essential immigration, with exceptions only for essential healthcare workers and “pick up illegal migrants out of boats and take them back to France”.
Last Friday, at a marathon six-hour cabinet “away-day”, Sir Keir urged his ministers to “be the disruptors, if you don’t want to be disrupted”, in what was seen as a deliberate reference to Reform UK.
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Earlier, speaking at the Parliamentary Labour Party meeting last week, the home secretary told the party’s MPs: “Public confidence in border security on the whole has plummeted.
“People are sick and tired of government promises on immigration that were never delivered. That’s why we have to restore grip and order. It’s vital that our borders are strengthened and the rules are respected and enforced.”
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At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, when Labour MPs heckled Mr Farage, he replied: “I’m sorry, Mr Speaker, but there appears to be some panic on the Labour benches. I’m not surprised… They really are panicking, aren’t they?”
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Panicking or not, Labour MPs have already formed backbench groups to plot a fightback against Reform UK, including a “Red Wall Caucus” WhatsApp group and “Blue Labour”, described as a pro-worker, anti-woke plan to beat Mr Farage.
It seems the party leadership has taken notice.
From now on, it will be the prime minister, home secretary and other senior ministers spearheading the fight against Mr Farage, starting with a Trumpian crackdown and publicity blitz on immigration this week.
