Why are the Tories playing Farage’s game?

How should Rishi Sunak respond to the unwelcome insertion of Nigel Farage into the election campaign? The Prime Minister called the election for 4 July in part because he hoped it would wrong-foot Reform, but that hasn’t worked, with Farage electrifying the challenger party and near-electrocuting many Tory MPs who were already terrified of losing their seats. 

The response from the centre has been to move even further into Reform’s territory. Home Secretary James Cleverly was out and about this morning talking about immigration, and dropping hints that the Conservatives could make leaving the European Convention on Human Rights a manifesto commitment. Asked about it, Cleverly said: ‘The point that we have made is that we have got a package of measures including the Rwanda scheme, which will form part of how we crack down on illegal immigration.’ He did not rule out leaving the ECHR, which will be seen as significant by Conservative MPs who have been campaigning for a tougher line for months.

Cleverly was also announcing an annual cap on migrant visas, as well as reducing the size of that cap annually for five years, and giving parliament a vote on the annual limits.