The surprise winner of PMQs this week was… Nigel Farage. And that’s without a single Reform MP even getting up to ask a question.
Last week, Kemi Badenoch tried to skewer Keir Starmer over the former transport secretary Louise Haigh’s past conviction for a fraud offence and pessimism over Labour economic plans. The Prime Minister derailed her attacks by slamming the last Conservative government’s record on immigration – unusual stomping ground for Labour, but damaging to the Tories in light of the eye-watering net migration figures released at the end of last month.
Badenoch was determined not to be caught out again this time around. She had done her homework. She came with six questions all on the topic of immigration, armed with some uncomfortable reminders of Starmer’s past interventions. If cutting immigration was so important to the PM, the Tory leader wanted to know, why hadn’t it been included in the six milestones he announced in his big speech last week? Why had he campaigned for free movement when he was running to be Labour leader? Why had he signed letters opposing the deportation of foreign criminals and promising to close detention centres? Why was he now refusing to implement a migration cap? And if the government was so clear it wanted to end asylum hotels, why was their use being expanded?
Starmer’s response on all of the above was a rerun of last week’s strategy: to remind the House just how dramatically immigration rose under the Conservatives. There was the usual focus on Badenoch’s own record (“she was the champion” on removing caps on migration visas, Starmer explained) and on the Tory failure more generally (“they lost control of the borders”), as well as much hyping up of the deals Labour has agreed with Germany and Iraq on smashing the smuggling gangs and strengthening security.
Badenoch wasn’t having any of it. “The only thing he’s smashed is his own reputation,” she retorted, adding the words of one hopeful asylum seeker who said Labour was making things easier. Starmer returned again to the deals and how beneficial they would be (“if she spent more time researching that than her terrible jokes, she’d know about that”), with another jibe about who caused this whole mess in the first place: namely the Tories.
It was not a particularly edifying spectacle. If Badenoch thought bringing up this area of Tory weakness would put her in control, she was mistaken. She flailed. But then, so did Starmer. Leaving immigration out of the milestones while claiming it was of utmost importance to this government was always going to be awkward for him. The best he could hope for was a draw.
And a draw was what he got, at least as far as the Conservatives were concerned. Reform MPs, meanwhile, must be laughing. What both leaders managed to do was focus attention on an issue neither has a grip on, at a time when there is another party in the Commons promising something altogether more radical. Whether the easy answers Nigel Farage offers are workable or even legal isn’t the point: every time Badenoch and Starmer scrap over who can be tougher in immigration, it strengthens Reform’s argument that this is the most important issue facing Britain, and that neither of the two main parties can be trusted.
Earlier this week, George Eaton outlined how Reform is both a help and a hinderance to the government: neutralising the Conservatives by splitting the right of the political ecosystem, but threatening Labour too by offering an alternative to voters disillusioned with mainstream politics. Right now, it is the Tories that have been hurled into a tailspin by Reform – Badenoch should have known it was foolish to lead on migration today. But Labour should be careful about giving Reform airtime to make its case that the immigration challenge demands something more radical than either of the main parties are willing to provide. And that’s the trap Starmer fell into today.
[See also: Labour is heading for disaster in Wales]
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