Ed Miliband – as clear as mud on immigration

Ed Miliband visited Airbus this morning, where he gave a clear headline message on immigration: never again will Labour abandon people who are concerned about immigration.  Alas, he became less clear the more he spoke.

At various points in an interview with The World at One earlier this afternoon, Miliband described immigration as a “class issue”; a concern of those people who are not getting a fair chance or those who are being undercut by cheap foreign labour exploited by predatory bosses. This fits neatly into his pre-packaged narrative about the evils of the modern market economy.

Miliband’s rhetoric on immigration from Europe is temperate; but, at base, his message is now not far from Nigel Farage’s. To put it crudely: an unskilled yokel is on his way to pinch your job, clog up your hospitals and schools and reduce your standard of living.