Bluff 'n' Boris cannot heal dismal duopoly

BRITISH politics has hit a new level of surrealism.

- Leo McKinstry

Panic-stricken by the local election results, Labour and the Conservatives are now competing to prove their toughness on immigration. Given their jointly abysmal record on controlling our borders, it’s a bizarre spectacle, like watching a bunch of alcoholics trying to take charge of the Temperance League.

Their new pose as the stern guardians of Britain’s national integrity is a cynical exercise in deceit, fuelled by terror at the advance of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. If the Labour or Tory chiefs actually believed the propaganda they now peddle, they would have taken robust action years ago instead of keeping the floodgates wide open.

Today, they condemn the failed “experiment” in mass immigration, but they are the ones who foisted this reckless strategy on our nation without any democratic mandate.

Even as the scale of the disaster became apparent through economic stagnation and social dislocation, they kept battering us with lies, such as their mantra “diversity is our strength” or their bogus claim that most migrants “come here to work”. In truth, just 15% of the influx from outside the EU is for work purposes.