Immigration – Are we ready to go through this again?

In an almost hilariously delusional article earlier this month (entitled ‘Labour in Manchester didn’t cut it for working people. In Birmingham, we Conservatives can‘, which prompted me to rub my eyes and check the last set of local election results, until I realised he was talking about Conference locations), Tory MP Guy Opperman seems sure that the way to our Northern hearts is through being tough on immigration and tough on welfare. I’ve covered this government’s approach to welfare reform fairly extensively in this column – and, let’s face it, I probably will do next week too – but: immigration. Are we ready to go through this again?

Some would argue that Labour never satisfactorily went through it in the first place. In fact, that’s the only thing some commentators argue: that Labour never properly engaged with the debate on immigration. We were too lax and too authoritarian. We came across both as a bit racist (“British jobs for British workers”) and a bit militantly PC (“Bigot”).

Ed’s speech to Conference, as we know, didn’t touch on policy too heavily, but it did touch briefly on immigration. I know I wasn’t the only one – as our party leader talked about his pride to be the son of immigrants – holding my breath, sitting on my hands and muttering “Don’t say ‘but’. Please don’t say ‘but’.” And he didn’t. Sure, on an ideological level some of us were disappointed that he didn’t say “Immigration is not making you unemployed or depressing your wages – allow me to show you an illustrative graph”, either, but back in the real world, a promise to assuage workers’ fears by cracking down on exploitative employers is, if not getting it right, then getting it right-er.

But following the BNP’s humiliation at the general election polls in 2010 – and their announcement over the weekend that they can’t afford to contest the Police and Crime Commissioner elections – do we really still need to have these arguments? Well, no-one ever starts a paragraph with a question like that unless they think the answer is ‘yes’. Whether or not the Tories decide to use immigration as a way to mark clear blue water between us and them, outside of mainstream politics the threat of the far right has not gone away. As Daniel Trilling, author of ‘Bloody Nasty People: The Rise of Britain’s Far Right’ puts it: ‘Nick Griffin’s project has failed – but support for the BNP remains…Griffin, along with the BNP’s Andrew Brons, remains an MEP. Lower-level activists, meanwhile, have been searching for a new vehicle.’ Disgruntled Bloody Nasties have scattered between the English Democrats and the National Front: meanwhile the EDL’s deputy leader, Kevin Carroll, is standing in the PCC elections for the British Freedom Party. All the fascists may be bound to lose, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gone away.

After this November’s elections are out of the way, and barring any by-elections (look after yourselves, MPs), the Euros are the next big test. While we know the BNP will not be winners in those elections, they remain an opportunity for us to demonstrate we have learned lessons. We should perform better not just by comparison with a disastrous post-expenses-scandal election, but by upping turnout. We should banish the fascist threat not just by waiting for the BNP’s corpse to desiccate and blow away but by standing together with both our white working class and BME communities. After November, this is Labour’s next big challenge.

Are we up to it?