The senior Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael has given a measured and Liberal response to today's intervention on immigration by Keir Starmer. I was pleased to see this following a disappointing press statement from the party this afternoon.
Alistair gave his response in a thread on Bluesky - here's what he wrote:
I fear that Labour is falling into the same trap that the Tories did - leaning on hostile rhetoric around immigration and damaging our public services and our economy in the process.
We should not pander to the far right but instead fix the problems that enable them. If you feed that wolf eventually it will eat you.
We need a flexible, dynamic legal migration system that works for our country and our economy, while treating everyone with dignity and respect.
We should have no truck with the demonisation of desperate people fleeing persecution, war or starvation, nor indeed of those who are on the frontline of our health and social care sectors. The last thing we need is to do more harm to our fragile public services.
There will always be a need for integration and fair play in our immigration system, but we should not ignore the enormous benefits that immigration has brought to our country. These are our friends and neighbours, people who enrich our cultural fabric and help drive our economy across the UK.
My fear, if the government fails to get better at making its case, is that, at the next election, Labour will fall back on the argument that you have to vote for them to stop Reform getting in.
The danger then is that the voters will here this as: "If you want to get rid of Labour, vote Reform."
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