How to Counter the Reform Narrative

Labour needs to stop mimicking Farage if they want to fight Reform.

From Grace: I’m on holiday for the next few weeks, so I’ve been working with a few brilliant writers on pieces for my Substack while I’m away. The second is this incisive article by journalist and author Nicola Kelly, who recently published an excellent new book on Britain’s broken asylum system, Anywhere But Here. I hope you enjoy the piece!

Last week I was talking about my book at an event when a question came up: “If you were still working at the Home Office, what advice would you give Yvette Cooper to counter the narrative from Reform?”

I’ve been mulling it over ever since.

Nigel Farage has a potent - and false - set of messages about immigration. He claims that the numbers of new arrivals are out of control. According to Reform, we're being duped, made to look like fools, while undeserving scroungers come over here, take our jobs and our GP appointments and harass our daughters. Farage, so he says, is a strong leader who can stand alongside the likes of Trump and reverse this country’s demise.

How can progressives tackle such a powerful cult of personality and divisive messaging? There are a few steps that I think might help.

1. Stop engaging in performative politics.

The first sign that Labour was rattled by the rise of Reform was its use of Deportation TV, showing shackled people boarding planes and being removed from the country. Soon after that, my former Home Office colleagues adopted Reform-style turquoise branding on posts emblazoned across social media.

Then there was the citizenship ban for refugees who arrived by small boat. Murmurings of a third-party agreement with the Balkans followed, not dissimilar to the utter failure that was the Tory’s Rwanda deal. Now, the forthcoming immigration white paper will reportedly take aim at international students and the workers we so desperately need in a scramble to reduce the net migration figures.

This all feels very grubby and very familiar. Labour needs to stop playing to Reform’s tune. That means moving on from the knee-jerk policies and toxic rhetoric and presenting a positive vision for the country.

2. Deal in fact, not fiction.

When Farage and his followers talk about immigration being out of control, they're usually alluding to the small boats - the most visible sign of the government’s incompetence. The Home Office should be making the case that people who arrive via small boat account for less than 5% of overall immigration: a miniscule number. You'd never know it for all the talk of stopping the boats and smashing the gangs.

The vast majority of people arrive through legal routes and go on to study or work, integrating into our communities: these are generally highly-skilled, highly-qualified individuals with excellent levels of English.

The current focus on cutting the number of international students is entirely misplaced. There is a strong case to be made that this group is vital to the economy. One report found that overseas students contributed £42 billion to the UK economy. Universities need them to balance the books, subsidising British pupils whose fees are capped. Warnings from vice-chancellors of a funding crisis are falling on deaf ears. Many bright, capable students are now, inevitably, deciding to take courses elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the UK desperately needs workers, not least because our ageing population requires support in nursing and care homes. There are currently 130,000 vacancies in the care sector that need to be filled. As one care home operator told me, “if we fail, the NHS fails”. Without these workers, the pressure on public services could quickly become unsustainable.

3. Stop fixating on net migration figures.

When I worked at the Home Office press office, the release of the quarterly ONS figures set the hares running. There were late nights, cursing, printers stalling, paper ripping. We were tasked with proactively briefing ‘friendly’ media outlets like the Daily Mail. There was an obsessive desire to secure favourable headlines in the tabloids.

Clearly, ahead of the publication of the white paper expected later this week and the latest batch of migration figures shortly after that, the Home Office are running scared of the Mail or proactively briefing them in a bid to control the narrative. Neither approach tends to work. These outlets will write what they want to write.

4. Listen to your voters.

Consider people’s top concerns on the doorstep during the recent local elections. Most cited their main worries as winter fuel payments, cuts to benefits and the dire state of public services. Immigration wasn't a major priority.

Instead of blaming migrants for the mess they've made of the economy, Labour should focus on trying to fix it.

5. Return to your values.

Why did people vote for Labour in the first place? Certainly not for cuts to public services.

Labour’s voter base tends to be younger, more progressive, more diverse. They should be talking to these voters rather than trying out-Reform Reform to appease the Daily Mail. Such a strategy will never win. After all, why would anyone vote for Reform-Lite when they can just vote for Reform?

I imagine it would be far more appealing to Labour’s core voters to fix the broken asylum system than to create further chaos and demonise vulnerable people. We've had enough of that already. Pandering to Reform is a recipe for disaster which will ultimately only lead to the far-right surging higher in the polls. Labour was elected on the promise of change. Now is the time to deliver it.

Nicola Kelly is a journalist and the author of ‘Anywhere But Here: How Britain’s Broken Asylum System Fails Us All’. Buy the book here. Available at all major retailers.