When it comes to immigration, Labour can only blame its inheritance from the Tories for so long

Editorial: Between the flawed Rwanda scheme and the backlog of asylum cases, there’s no doubt Labour inherited an enormous challenge from the Tories. But its own immigration policies are currently falling short – and it may cost them in the long run

When Sir Keir Starmer unveiled six policy milestones in his “plan for change” this month, any targets to reduce legal and illegal migration were conspicuous by their absence.

Ministers insist cutting both is a priority but are right to learn from the Conservatives’ mistakes. Successive prime ministers from David Cameron onwards promised to reduce legal migration, and Rishi Sunak impaled himself on a painful hook by pledging to “stop the boats” crossing the English Channel. The Tories’ abject failure to deliver undoubtedly fuelled public concern about immigration and contributed to their defeat in July’s general election.

As on the public finances, Labour can claim a rotten inheritance. The backlog of asylum cases grew as the Tories foolishly put all their eggs in the basket of their flawed £715m Rwanda scheme, which the Starmer government was right to scrap on taking office.

However, small boat crossings are now rising on Labour’s watch. Some 34,880 people have arrived so far this year (including 21,306 since the election) – up 20 per cent on this time last year, but down 22 per cent on the peak year of 2022. Being able to blame the Tories is a diminishing asset for Labour, and ministers are under mounting pressure to show they are “doing something” about it.

This explains a media blitz by Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, who visited Rome at the weekend for talks on tackling the people-smugglers with her Italian counterpart. She trumpeted the 13,460 migrants returned to their home country since July, with enforced returns up by a quarter on last year and at their highest level in almost six years. However, this is relatively low-hanging fruit: 9,770 of the returns are believed to be voluntary returns and foreign national offenders.

The home secretary refused to set a deadline for cutting small boat arrivals, but insisted the government is making progress, telling the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “What we’re not going to do is deal with this by slogans.” Yet Labour has its own soundbites. Sir Keir has repeatedly promised to “smash the gangs”, even if that is like playing whack a mole. The Home Office announced after Ms Cooper’s trip that the UK and Italy will “create a new taskforce with Mafia-busting style tactics to seize the ill-gotten gains” of the gangs.

To be fair, the government’s pragmatic approach of building international alliances, which has also brought agreements with Germany and Iraq, is the right one. Labour’s constructive engagement is more likely to pay dividends than the Tories’ tough rhetoric and costly stunts.

A returns agreement with the EU would be a huge prize, although it will be very difficult to convince the French government to agree to such a deal. But it may be a concession worth making as the UK looks to reset its relations with the bloc.

Legal migration will almost certainly drop significantly from the record 906,000 net figure revealed last month for the 12 months to June last year – 166,000 higher than previous estimates – partly because of measures introduced by the Tories. The Office for Budget Responsibility fiscal watchdog forecasts it will fall to 315,000 by 2028-29.

In comparison, the numbers crossing the Channel are small, but they are a huge political headache for Sir Keir. While Labour’s temptation to match the Tories’ rhetoric is understandable, ministers should be less timid about exploring other options. They are reluctant to open more safe and legal routes, which could reduce the numbers arriving in small boats. Many of them have fled conflict, persecution and humanitarian emergencies; six of the 10 nationalities accounting for most arrivals come from unstable countries, including Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria.

Ministers point to resettlement schemes for people in Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan. But the limitations of these routes were shown by the long campaign The Independent needed to fight before an Afghan pilot who fought alongside British forces was allowed to remain in the UK and be reunited with his family. He arrived in a small boat.

Labour will be nervous about hostile headlines about more safe routes but the British public is more compassionate about helping genuine refugees than politicians think and the country has a proud tradition of doing so.

Although the Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch was right to acknowledge the Tories’ failure on immigration, doing so will not in itself regain public trust, especially as the party continues to flog the dead horse of its Rwanda scheme.

The bigger challenge to Sir Keir on the immigration issue might come from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which came second to Labour in 89 of the 98 seats where it was the runner-up in July. To see off this threat, the government will need more than tough talk and will have to show real progress in reducing the numbers arriving in small boats by the next election.