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Tony Blair warns: curbing immigration would be ‘disaster’ for Britain Tony Blair warns curbing immigration would be disaster for Britain
(about 2 hours later)
Tony Blair has warned Ed Miliband not to chase Ukip to win over voters and insisted that curbing immigration would be a “disaster” for Britain. Tony Blair has intervened in the increasingly fractious debate on how counter Ukip’s appeal over immigration by saying that chasing Ukip’s support will only validate the argument of its leaders.
The former prime minister said Labour must be “really careful” of saying things that suggested Nigel Farage’s party was justified in its policies. He urged the Labour party to show greater clarity that immigration is both necessary and defensible.
Miliband last week announced that a Labour government would immediately bring in an immigration bill and said the EU needed “to change if we are to deal with the problems of immigration”. In an interview with Progress magazine he said “Let’s be clear: we don’t think that Ukip’s right, not on immigration and not on Europe – so the first thing you’ve got to be really careful of doing is … saying things that suggest that they’re kind of justified in their policy because what you’re actually going to do is validate their argument when in fact you don’t believe in it.’
Blair said the way to tackle the threat from Ukip was to “deal with it by what you believe”. He also repeated his belief that immigration from the European Union and outside should have been accompanied by identity cards, something that was rejected by parliament.
He told Progress magazine: “Let’s be clear: We don’t think that Ukip’s right, not on immigration and not on Europe – so the first thing you’ve got to be really careful of doing is ... saying things that suggest that they’re kind of justified in their policy, because what you’re actually going to do is validate their argument when, in fact, you don’t believe in it.” ID cards were vital, he said, to ensure the “system doesn’t get abused and exploited, and you don’t end up with people feeling that they’ve lost control over their communities and their lives.”
Stopping immigration would be “a disaster for this country”, and Labour must not “end up chasing after the policies of a party like Ukip, who you don’t agree with, whose policies would take this country backwards economically, politically, in every conceivable way, and who, ultimately, at the heart of what they do, have a rather nasty core of prejudice that none of us believe in, which you’ve actually got to take on and fight. So the way to deal with this is to deal with it by what you believe”. Labour, he says, should not “end up chasing after the policies of a party like Ukip, who you don’t agree with, whose policies would take this country backwards economically, politically, in every conceivable way, and who, ultimately, at the heart of what they do, have a rather nasty core of prejudice that none of us believe in, which you’ve actually got to take on and fight. So the way to deal with this is to deal with it by what you believe.”
Blair claimed the way David Cameron was dealing with the threat from Ukip “doesn’t do them any electoral favours at all”. Blair did not say whether he regarded Ed Miliband’s stance as too weak, but Miliband has said Labour made mistakes in handling immigration during the Blair era and has called for a range of labour market measures designed to reduce the threat of exploitation of migrants, and so make British workers more attractive in the labour market.
He claimed the Tories would be better off at the ballot box “if they actually stood up against these people and said, ‘You don’t understand the way the world works today, your policies will take us backwards and we’re not going there.’” He did however attack David Cameron. In a reference to his own battle with the unions for control of the Labour party, Blair said the Conservative party’s “Clause IV is Europe, and the fact that they haven’t dealt with it and have now allowed this thing to run away again with their party, it doesn’t do them any electoral favours at all.”
Blair added: “There’s a huge desire in a large part of the media in this country to return British politics to a traditional Tory party fighting a traditional Labour party.” The former prime minister believes the Tories would attract more support “if they actually stood up against these people and said: ‘You don’t understand the way the world works today, your policies will take us backwards and we’re not going there’”
That would lead to “a traditional result”, he warned. He also urged Labour not be lured to the left in a bid to win votes. He said an emphasis on “strong values, but practical, non-ideological solutions” is “definitely where people are”. He added: “It’s often not where political parties are because they want to appeal to their activists.”
But, he argues, Labour should beware: “There’s a huge desire in a large part of the media in this country to return British politics to a traditional Tory party fighting a traditional Labour party.”
Such a contest, the only man who has led Labour to victory in the last 40 years concludes grimly, always results in “a traditional result”.