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Hot on the heels of last week’s major speech by the Home Secretary, in which she said illegal migration was an existential challenge for the West and that multiculturalism is failing, she has followed it up with another controversial speech.
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference Mrs Braverman warned of a ‘hurricane’ of migration, accused her party colleagues of being ‘squeamish’ in the past and dubbed the Human Rights Act the Criminal Rights Act.
Of course, as we said in last week’s newsletter, the Home Secretary is quite right in these assertions. Yet while she stands and makes these bold speeches, she seemingly stands alone in her party.
One after another, her colleagues have made fairly clear their disagreement. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, for instance emphasising how he believes Britain benefits ‘massively’ from welcoming immigrants. To really make his point clear, he said: “Suella Braverman wouldn’t use my words, I wouldn’t use her words.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch, somewhat surprisingly all but condemned Braverman’s rhetoric for fear that people don’t get “echoes of things that were less palatable.” Squeamish indeed. We can’t overlook the words of those manoeuvring themselves for a possible (likely?) post-election Tory leadership tussle.
Outside of the Government’s ranks, former Tory London Mayoral candidate Andrew Boff heckled Braverman during her speech, while several backbenchers have also expressed in public or private their disagreement.
All this illuminates a gaping flaw in the Conservative electoral strategy. While Sunak assumed a laser focus on stopping the boats would be enough to win over the segments of the electorate who desire a cut in immigration, this simply isn’t enough (especially given that he still hasn’t done it). Illegal migration makes up a small proportion of the total and although it is very visible and costly, it is the record high legal migration that has placed incredible pressures on housing and which is responsible for the rapid change in communities up and down the country. Despite what the Conservative leadership and, we believe, No 10 think, people do care about this. It isn’t just about hotels and barges, but the future of our country.
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. You can read the full version here.
Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every Friday as soon as it is released.