‘An island of strangers’: is this the Labour party voters wanted?

‘陌生人岛’:这真的是工党选民所期望的吗?

Today in Focus

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2025-05-16

28 分钟
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Helen Pidd heads to parliament to hear what Labour MPs think about the government’s new talk on immigration, and asks the columnist Nesrine Malik whether it may all backfire. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
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  • This is The Guardian.

  • Today, after a week of anti-immigration rhetoric, what is Labour doing?

  • If you voted Labour in the general election last year,

  • remember how you felt when you woke up the next morning?

  • Maybe you didn't even go to bed.

  • Did you dare to dream that we were entering a new era of government?

  • That the years of cuts were behind us and that cruelty would make way for a more compassionate politics that would prioritise the most vulnerable in society?

  • Perhaps you just wanted a government that you weren't actively ashamed of.

  • Well, how's that turned out for you?

  • First, they cut the universal winter fuel payments.

  • Then they announced plans to cut benefits for disabled people.

  • And this week, a new low?

  • Good morning.

  • Today we publish a white paper on immigration.

  • A strategy absolutely central to my plan for change.

  • Maybe it wasn't so much the policies.

  • To drastically cut legal migration by restricting visas for students and skilled workers.

  • By tightening up English language requirements.

  • Doubling the length of time it takes to gain permanent settlement rights.

  • And, perhaps most ambitiously of all,