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Labour’s clumsy triangulation on Reform’s ‘racism’ just exposed their weakness

On 28 September, Keir Starmer described Reform’s policy on indefinite leave as “racist” in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg. For purely political reasons, it’s smart for Starmer to attack this policy, because it’s demonstrably unpopular with the public. It already looks like Labour are going to struggle to land the racism attack on Reform, however, as their actions since 2024 have made it impossible for them to credibly oppose the UK’s growing far-right – a movement which is lining up behind the superficially respectable Nigel Farage.

Reform

‘Indefinite leave’ gives individuals the right to permanent ‘settlement’ after living and working here for five years (with this duration shortening in some circumstances). On 22 September, Reform announced plans to abolish the right to ‘indefinite leave’. The plan would mean migrants need to continuously apply for new visas; it would also see the rules around granting these visas tighten.

Speaking on the plan, Trades Union Congress said:

Reform’s plan to get rid of indefinite leave to remain would mean no matter how people arrived in this country, no matter how long they lived here, no matter how much they have contributed – if they work or they raise their families here they could be rounded up and sent home.

That’s exactly the kind of language of the National Front in the 1970s.

Reform claimed that “hundreds of thousands” would have to reapply, with some losing their right to remain. Given the significant population of migrants with settled status in the UK, many of us have friends or family members who would be affected. This reflected in polling, which showed overwhelming opposition to the policy – even among those who support ending indefinite leave:

Poll showing a clear majority against the Reform policy

Once the policy was out in the open, Farage himself had a hard time defending it:

Given the widespread opposition, it should be easy for Labour to capitalise on the situation. There are two reasons why they’re failing to do so:

  • Labour are pursuing a very similar policy platform to Reform.
  • Unlike Reform, Labour have no answer to the question of why everything is getting worse.

Labour, Reform, and racism: policy pals

Labour are struggling to criticise Reform’s policy platform because in many ways they’re identical; the difference is Starmer’s plan is three years behind Farage’s. As that’s pretty obvious to most people, the question is ‘why vote for yesterday’s policies today?‘

At the same time that Reform are promising to end indefinite leave and make remaining more difficult, Labour are promising to keep indefinite leave but make attaining it more difficult. If you read that quickly, you probably didn’t register what the difference is.

As reported by the BBC (emphasis added):

Labour says the policy draws a clear dividing line between the government and Reform UK, which says it would abolish indefinite leave to remain.

Currently, migrants can apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years, giving them the right to live, study and work in the UK permanently.

Labour plans to double the period it takes to gain the status from five years to 10, and a consultation was announced in May as part of a package of plans to cut immigration.

How is this a clear line?

Reform have decided that people with indefinite leave are the problem; Labour have decided that people with indefinite leave are the problem.


Compare Labour’s stance to Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s:

What’s the problem?

On 29 September, Rachel Reeves was interviewed by Nick Ferrari, who asked her if ‘supporting Reform’s indefinite leave policy’ makes a person racist. Reeves said she didn’t think so, arguing:

I think there are lots of people who back Reform would be horrified by the thought that people who came to this country legally, are working and contributing, will be deported from this country. And we had to call out Reform for their policies. And this is a racist policy, and it’s a bad for our country, and we need to call that out.

To a greater or lesser extent, every major UK political party is pursuing (or has pursued) policies which are racist. The question is ‘are voters specifically voting for the racist policies, or are they turning a blind eye to them because they see some other benefit to themselves?‘ For the victims of racism, it doesn’t matter either way, but there is a difference between a committed white supremacist and an apathetic / selfish voter in terms of how you can influence their thinking. The problem with Reform is they’re saying every issue in modern Britain is the fault of migration, and so their voters are becoming increasingly immovable – especially as there’s little mainstream opposition from politicians or journalists.

It doesn’t matter if a person is a dedicated white supremacist or not; if they’re voting Reform, it’s because they’ve bought the party’s line that we must worsen life for migrants to improve the situation for UK-born citizens. This is a toxic way of thinking, and as we’ve seen under the Tories, the failure of right-wing policies to address right-wing economic issues creates an opening for the far right to push things towards the politics of white supremacy.

Knee-jerk xenophobia aside, the problem with Reform’s position is that our lives absolutely will not get better as a result of oppressing migrants.

We could remove the right to indefinite leave; we could deport every migrant; we could re-migrate every Black and brown citizen; we could banish every McDonald and O’Sullivan – none of it will improve your living conditions. In fact, as we’re an ageing society with an inverting proportion of workers to retirees, reducing the number of migrants will almost certainly make things worse.

Wealth inequality

So what’s the actual problem; the thing which is obliterating our living standards?

It’s simple; it’s wealth inequality, and it’s destroying this country.

As the Equality Trust have noted:

The UK’s wealth inequality is much more severe than income inequality, with the top fifth taking 36% of the country’s income and 63% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom fifth have only 8% of the income and only 0.5% of the wealth according to the Office for National Statistics.

This shouldn’t surprise you, but having more and more of wealth concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people is a massively destabilising force. Multiple studies have predicted the increasingly chaotic trajectory we’re on, with the Fairness Foundation identifying three potential futures for the UK:

  • Future 1: Stabilisation Wealth inequality is reduced, and social cohesion improves
  • Future 2: Decline Wealth inequality is maintained, and social cohesion gradually worsens
  • Future 3: Collapse Wealth inequality increases, contributing to societal dysfunction, unrest or conflict

The problem for Labour is they refuse to acknowledge this reality. They also refuse to acknowledge solutions like wealth taxes. And it’s no mystery why; it’s because Starmer wants to attract the same wealthy donors as Farage.

Going nowhere

Regardless of how wrong Reform are on the solutions, they’re right to believe people will respond to a clear message:

Starmer, meanwhile, is riffing on management speak drivel which says nothing to anyone:

Starmer described Reform’s policy as “racist” rather than the party itself (or its voters). Despite this, Reform politicians and their allies in the media are saying that Starmer is calling them all racists:

This is entirely predictable, and it’s something any party opposing Reform will have to deal with. The problem is that Labour aren’t opposing Reform; they’re trying to be a diet version of it, and that’s a beverage which no one in this country is drinking.

Featured image via Rwendland (Wikimedia) / Daily Express (YouTube)

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.