Tories – and Brits – are warming to immigration

In the dark, foggy night that is the Brexit debate, immigration is the dog that has not yet barked. The Chequers agreement contains a promise to formally end free movement, but also to replace it with a “mobility agreement” that could well mean EU migration continues at more or less its current level. Would that provoke a furious public backlash? There are growing signs that some voters are more relaxed about immigration than at the time of the referendum, and more aware of its economic usefulness. Could Theresa May ask the British people to accept a fairly liberal European immigration regime? I hope so, and in this context I note three facts:

1: New data from the British Social Attitudes Survey, one of the gold standard measures of public opinion, suggests voters are becoming more positive about immigration

It shows that since 2015 the number of Britons with negative opinions about immigration has fallen steadily.