My party must stop speaking in Farage's voice on asylum

Labour's hardline reforms are an extraordinary act of political self-harm (PA)

- OLIVIA BLAKE

Yesterday morning’s headlines were dominated by the news of French police using large nets to stop small boats crossing the English Channel.

This marks the next step in an ever-increasing hardening of the UK’s borders. I’ve been to Calais and seen at first hand the tools that the French police are deploying. All too often, these measures lead to even more dangerous crossings whilst doing nothing to reduce numbers.

This follows the Labour government's asylum reforms, announced earlier this week, which are more than a policy error. They are deeply cruel, exacting a heavy human cost. Beyond this, they are an extraordinary act of political self-harm.

By borrowing the language, logic and cruelty of Reform UK, ministers are not neutralising Nigel Farage's views; they are legitimising them.

When a Labour government begins to sound indistinguishable from the hard right on immigration - when its spokespeople parrot phrases like "golden ticket" and boast about making life harder for refugees - this is not triangulation. It is capitulation, and it represents a profound betrayal of Labour values.

The “golden ticket” rhetoric is particularly revealing. It treats desperate people as opportunists, as though fleeing torture, war or persecution is some kind of luxury.

You have not won a prize when you run for your life. You are not playing a game when you are forcibly removed from your home. You are not lucky if your country is persecuting you. This language of winners and losers is not just ugly; it is dehumanising, and lifted straight from Farage’s playbook.