Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O’Flynn

Has Nigel Farage missed the immigration vibe shift?

(Photo: Getty)

Who in Westminster is ‘right-wing’ on immigration? Which parties are actively propelling the Overton window to the right?

If you listened to some mid-wit urban leftists you’d think all three parties jostling to be top of the polls – Reform, Labour and (least successfully) the Tories – are engaged in a mad political arms race on the subject.

Clive Lewis, the left-wing Labour MP, this week accused ministers of ‘enabling the mainstreaming of racism’ by putting out a video of people being deported. Certainly, we have travelled a distance from the days when even attempting to create a ‘hostile environment’ for illegal immigrants was deemed unconscionable.

But if there is an arms race going on, it must be over which party can construct the best pea-shooter – because none appears to understand the sulphurous public mood.

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