It should come as no surprise that Keir Starmer has already contracted a severe dose of Boris Johnson disease when it comes to immigration policy.
This occurs when a prime minister has a general commitment to bring down the overall volume of inward migration and yet makes so many specific exceptions that such an outcome becomes impossible.
In Johnson’s case the list of special cases became comically long: Ukrainians, Hong Kongers, Afghans, overseas students and their dependents, social care visas, lower earnings thresholds, not getting round to deporting illegal arrivals to Rwanda or almost anywhere else. As a result net migration rose to levels that led to a ferocious electoral punishment for his party early last month.
Starmer is pinned to a similar immigration pledge to Johnson – to bring it down without specifying by how much. He may figure that he can hardly fail to meet this target given that belated Tory policy decisions mean significant reductions are in the pipeline.
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