Uncontrolled immigration is the hottest topic of our age. And hurling accusations of racism won't change that

Will it ever be possible to have an honest conversation in this country about mass immigration? There are some who would prefer us not to.

On Tuesday the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that in the year to June 2023 the population of the United Kingdom grew by 1 per cent, or 662,400, to 68.2 million people.

This astounding annual increase, the largest since records began, was driven entirely by net migration. In fact, the resident population of the UK fell by 16,300 over this period because there were more deaths than births.

How did our State broadcaster, the BBC, deal with these extraordinary facts? Well, it reported on Tuesday’s BBC1 News at Six that the record rise in population was driven ‘mainly’ by net immigration, although in truth it was exclusively so.

BBC Home Editor Mark Easton gave us the benefit of his thoughts. Whilst acknowledging that the population would have fallen without immigration, he looked forward with foreboding to what will happen if Tory visa rules curb the influx of immigrants.

In other words, what worries Mark isn’t the reality of mass migration but the prospect of the UK population declining if it abates. The implication was that this country needs large numbers of immigrants.

It’s all academic in any case since, despite those tighter visa rules belatedly introduced by the last Tory government, legal immigration seems likely to remain at very high levels – higher than this country experienced before Brexit.
Migrants wave to a smuggler's boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel near Dunkirk, northern France

According to the statistically impeccable Migration Watch – an organisation ignored by the BBC because it opposes mass immigration – annual net migration of 600,000 is projected to lead to an increase in our population of 20 million by the mid to late 2040s. That’s 40 cities the size of Bristol!

Even if growth turned out to be half this amount, the pressure on schools, public services such as hospitals, and housing would be immense. I don’t believe this is what most British people, including immigrants settled here, want.

Then there is social cohesion, already fraying as some immigrant communities fail to assimilate. Just look at the origins of the people coming here (85 per cent from outside the EU) in the 12 months to June 2023.

How can so many people from different societies easily assimilate in a country that is already culturally fragmented?

All these are legal immigrants, encouraged to come here by universities, the NHS, or businesses. The number of illegal immigrants includes, but far surpasses, those who have come across the English Channel in recent years.

A new study at Oxford University reckons that there could be as many as 745,000 illegal immigrants living here, more than one in every 100 people in Britain. By contrast, France and Germany (a more populous country than the UK) are estimated to have 300,000 and 700,000 illegal immigrants respectively.

This Government hasn’t grasped the severity of the situation or the concerns of the majority of people. Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper metronomically repeat their intention to ‘smash the gangs’ – i.e. stop illegal immigration – without producing any measures likely to achieve such an outcome.

Meanwhile, although Starmer says somewhat breezily that legal net migration should come down, he hasn’t come up with a single policy that might give us a shred of confidence that he will manage to achieve that.

This brings me to another dishonesty. No one in this Government ever connects the dire shortage of new housing in this country with immigration levels that are out of control.

Sir Keir Starmer never makes a link. Nor does Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London. Nor does Deputy PM Angela Rayner, who is spearheading Labour’s plan to build 150,000 new homes a year. Labour is stamping on local opposition and denigrates so-called ‘Nimbys’ as it plans to despoil swathes of England with new homes.

This is my question. If the population is gently declining, as those ONS figures suggest, why do we need so many new houses and all the ancillary infrastructure of schools, roads, GP surgeries, pylons and so forth? There is one obvious answer. Mass immigration.

I accept that this isn’t the only cause. If there weren’t a single immigrant entering the country, we would still need more homes. Households are declining in size for a number of reasons. More people are living alone, or as couples, than was the case half a century ago.

Nonetheless, immigration is a major factor in housing demand – responsible for at least 40 per cent of new homes, according to Migration Watch and the Right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies.

Imagine a young person, who may be of a Left-wing persuasion, unable to rent or buy a flat. Because there is a fashionable fatwa against connecting high levels of immigration with the shortage of housing, such a person may blame the capitalist system.

And so the cry goes out from Whitehall: ‘Build more houses!’ But the sensible and honest cry should be: ‘Bring immigration under control’.

Will it ever happen? There are many vested interests dependent on mass immigration – universities; the NHS; businesses craving cheap labour – and it will take a strong and determined government to stand up to them. We don’t have one of those.

Moreover, Labour is largely in thrall to modish metropolitan opinion that still claims it is racist to oppose immigration. Such people have succeeded in keeping a lid on an honest and informed debate for years.

But no longer, I think. Uncontrolled immigration will be the hottest political topic for the next 20 years, as more and more people seek to escape the poverty and lawlessness of their unhappy homelands.

The party that fails to control mass migration is doomed. That almost certainly means Labour. As for the Conservatives, having failed in government will they now fail in opposition?

Of the two remaining candidates to get through, surprisingly, to the final round of the Tory leadership contest – Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch – only the former appears resolutely committed to restricting immigration.

Reform UK could have an opening. For all his many faults, Nigel Farage understands that people have had enough. His challenge, which he has so far just about met, is to oppose mass immigration without sounding racist. His appointment of Zia Yusuf, a Muslim multi-millionaire, as party chairman was shrewd.

Will we ever have an honest debate about immigration? Those who would rather we didn’t will continue to hurl accusations of racism to stifle discussion. But they’ll no longer be able to suppress the biggest issue of our age.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13942059/Uncontrolled-immigration-hottest-topic-age-hurling-accusations-racism-wont-change-that.html

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