Cameron must bring honesty to the immigration debate

I had thought David Cameron would shy away from immigration. That the scars of the 2005 campaign would keep him away from it just as Letwin’s 2001 disaster left him too traumatised to ever consider tax cuts again. Yet today at 11.15am at Policy Exchange, Cameron will give a keynote speech on immigration – the topic which, polls show, troubles the public the most. Remember, Iain Dale had told us on Friday that the Great Clunking Fist was planning to grasp this nettle first. So Cameron today beats him too it.

For me, his mission will be to show a more mature understanding of the problem than Labour. The bar is set low. Brown’s “British jobs for British workers” mantra (an old BNP slogan, as the Fink has brilliantly shown) is not a policy. It’s the old Blunkett technique of strong words, backed by drift and inaction. My test for Cameron is to provide the biggest factor missing in the immigration debate - honesty. I’d like him to admit that ministers can only control a third of immigration, having signed off the control of our borders to the EU, so neither he nor anyone else can lower immigration.
 
And as I posted last week, from now until at least 2030 we will take in 190,000 net immigrants - the equivalent of a city the size of York or Portsmouth every year. Cameron can either come up with a way to reduce this figure (and legally, I don't think he can), or explain how Britain will cope. But an honest assessment of the situation would be a major step forward - and put him well ahead of Brown.