Rishi Sunak’s asylum plan poses a problem for Keir Starmer

The issue for the leader of the opposition is that he agrees with most of it, writes John Rentoul

The prime minister certainly seemed to be across the detail, in a way that has been alien to British politics during the Boris Johnson years (Reuters)

With the possible exception of the Rwanda policy, today’s statement from the prime minister could have been delivered by Tony Blair. Given some of his recent positions, it could even have been delivered by Keir Starmer.

A Labour prime minister, having consulted the focus groups, might also have opened such a statement by talking of “the balancing of our duty to support people in dire need with the responsibility to have genuine control of our borders”. Such a prime minister could have spoken of our “proud history of providing sanctuary to those most in need” and could have said: “Britain helped craft the 1951 Refugee Convention to protect those fleeing persecution.”

A Labour occupant of No 10 might even have been tempted to proclaim our openness to people from Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine in similarly schmaltzy terms: “Thousands of families will be setting extra places around the Christmas table this year. No one can doubt our generosity of spirit.”