Labour must fight the far right on immigration | Letter
Andy Beckett is right to criticise the current approach by Keir Starmer on immigration (
). To describe the increase in migrant numbers in the UK as a Tory “open borders experiment” is a crude populist gimmick of which Starmer should be ashamed.The immigration issue is too serious for playing political games like this. Across Europe and in the US, the far right is gaining strength on the basis of hostility to immigration, and the centre-left is simply mimicking this xenophobic lead without success. Labour is following this trend, which only legitimises the politics of racial hatred and encourages voters to support the most extreme and convincing voices.
There is an alternative narrative that Starmer could lead, stressing the enormous benefits of immigration to our economy, our society, our universities, our cities and town centres, our culture – and of course, as Starmer knows, our football clubs. Will he have the courage to reframe the debate before it is too late?
Gideon Ben-Tovim
Liverpool
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please
us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our
letters
section.