Pollster and author Matt Goodwin has warned that “immigration into the UK is about to explode - again”, as three new stories reveal the disastrous direction Labour is taking Britain.
Writing in his latest Substack essay, Goodwin said that if people want to know “where Britain is heading” under the looming Andy Burnham era, they only need to look at what happened this week.
First, it has emerged that 34,400 asylum seekers used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) last year to resist removal from Britain. According to Home Office analysis, this could cost taxpayers £4.9 billion - enough to build around 160 new primary schools or 10 new prisons.
Goodwin said this showed how power over Britain’s borders is being handed away to “distant, unaccountable, international institutions” while ordinary taxpayers are left to foot the bill.
But Labour is not merely failing to remove people with no right to be here - it is actively creating more routes for people to come. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced plans for another refugee sponsorship scheme, modelled on Canada’s private sponsorship programme.
Under the plan, households, charities, universities and “community organisations” will be able to sponsor refugees identified by the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Goodwin described this as “yet another distant supranational organisation” deciding who comes into Britain, while those selected will be welcomed by “pro-immigration and inevitably left-wing charities, foundations, community organisers and more”.
Ministers claim the scheme will bring in around 10,000 arrivals before the end of the decade. But Goodwin warned that this number could be a massive underestimate. After all, civil servants once predicted only 13,000 EU nationals would come to Britain after the 2004 EU enlargement, before millions arrived.
Labour will claim these new “safe and legal routes” are needed to stop illegal immigration. But we have already seen the conclusion of this experiment. The Boriswave gave nearly five million people the right to come to Britain legally from outside the EU, and yet this did nothing to stop hundreds of thousands arriving illegally via small boats. More legal routes will certainly not fix our broken borders, but they do mean more immigration.
And even that is not the end of it. At the same time, Labour wants to make it easier for immigrants already here to stay forever. Labour MPs are pushing to soften the party’s already weak reforms to indefinite leave to remain, allowing more immigrants to settle in Britain permanently.
Put together, Goodwin wrote that this paints “a very clear picture” of a Labour Party “dramatically softening its position on immigration and asylum”.
He warned that Britain should expect “more illegal migrants”, “more refugees” and “more decisions being taken out of the hands of the British people”. Above all, we should all expect “more broken borders”.
Only Reform UK has a serious plan to end this chaos. A Reform government will leave the ECHR, repeal the Human Rights Act and pass emergency legislation to make anyone who enters Britain illegally ineligible for asylum. It will establish a UK Deportation Command and build secure removal centres to detain and deport anyone who has no right to stay in this country.
While Labour keeps surrendering control, Reform UK will take it back.
Writing in his latest Substack essay, Goodwin said that if people want to know “where Britain is heading” under the looming Andy Burnham era, they only need to look at what happened this week.
First, it has emerged that 34,400 asylum seekers used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) last year to resist removal from Britain. According to Home Office analysis, this could cost taxpayers £4.9 billion - enough to build around 160 new primary schools or 10 new prisons.
Goodwin said this showed how power over Britain’s borders is being handed away to “distant, unaccountable, international institutions” while ordinary taxpayers are left to foot the bill.
But Labour is not merely failing to remove people with no right to be here - it is actively creating more routes for people to come. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced plans for another refugee sponsorship scheme, modelled on Canada’s private sponsorship programme.
Under the plan, households, charities, universities and “community organisations” will be able to sponsor refugees identified by the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Goodwin described this as “yet another distant supranational organisation” deciding who comes into Britain, while those selected will be welcomed by “pro-immigration and inevitably left-wing charities, foundations, community organisers and more”.
Ministers claim the scheme will bring in around 10,000 arrivals before the end of the decade. But Goodwin warned that this number could be a massive underestimate. After all, civil servants once predicted only 13,000 EU nationals would come to Britain after the 2004 EU enlargement, before millions arrived.
Labour will claim these new “safe and legal routes” are needed to stop illegal immigration. But we have already seen the conclusion of this experiment. The Boriswave gave nearly five million people the right to come to Britain legally from outside the EU, and yet this did nothing to stop hundreds of thousands arriving illegally via small boats. More legal routes will certainly not fix our broken borders, but they do mean more immigration.
And even that is not the end of it. At the same time, Labour wants to make it easier for immigrants already here to stay forever. Labour MPs are pushing to soften the party’s already weak reforms to indefinite leave to remain, allowing more immigrants to settle in Britain permanently.
Put together, Goodwin wrote that this paints “a very clear picture” of a Labour Party “dramatically softening its position on immigration and asylum”.
He warned that Britain should expect “more illegal migrants”, “more refugees” and “more decisions being taken out of the hands of the British people”. Above all, we should all expect “more broken borders”.
Only Reform UK has a serious plan to end this chaos. A Reform government will leave the ECHR, repeal the Human Rights Act and pass emergency legislation to make anyone who enters Britain illegally ineligible for asylum. It will establish a UK Deportation Command and build secure removal centres to detain and deport anyone who has no right to stay in this country.
While Labour keeps surrendering control, Reform UK will take it back.
Subscribe to Matt Goodwin’s Substack here.
