Labour backbenchers snub immigration questions

Dear oh dear. Has all Labour’s tough talk on tackling immigration been purely for show? That’s how things appear after a question on illegal migration today saw a grand total of, er, zero Labour backbenchers turn up. Not even Natalie Elphicke, the Dover and Deal defector who made tackling immigration her defining mission, bothered to attend. How curious.

On Friday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer travelled to the coastal town of Deal to bang on about his party’s immigration plans amidst the controversy he found himself in over Elphicke’s defection. He committed to scrapping the Rwanda scheme ‘absolutely, flights and all’ and instead pledged to divert £75 million to allow specialist officers ‘to break gangs’. The Labour leader was introduced by his newest and most controversial MP herself, who told supporters: ‘Nowhere is Rishi Sunak’s lack of delivery clearer than on the issue of small boats.’ And nowhere was the new Labour backbencher’s absence more obvious than in the Commons today.