We welcome the change in tone from the Labour Party and their recognition of the real importance of the immigration issue to the wider public.
However, an effective immigration policy must address the issue of scale. Net migration is now at the record level of 250,000 a year. The public still needs to know what Labour thinks is the right level of net migration for the UK and how they propose to achieve it.
The focus in this speech on immigration from the EU was especially misleading. Migrants from the EU make up only 20% of the 3.5 million net foreign migration since 1997. They are also the part of immigration that is not subject to immigration control.
The relatively minor policies proposed in this speech are unlikely to have any significant impact on numbers.
