Nick Boles has a habit of making explosive interventions and then disappearing from political debate for a little while after an almighty telling off from Number 10. Tonight he may be planning to lay low for a while, because he’s probably wanted for causing another big row.
The Skills Minister has told Total Politics magazine that the government may never be able to control immigration properly, suggesting that this will be the case as long as Britain remains in the EU. He said:
‘We may never be able to control it entirely, because it’s a fundamental principle of the EU, but it will be very hard for the British people to accept that, for as long as Britain remains the most dynamic economy in the EU, we’re going to be the net recipient of a very large amount of immigration every year. And it’s going to be hard to bring those people back onboard. That’s a challenge both to the Labour Party and to us almost equally. It’s something we have to respond to, not because of an economic argument. Politics isn’t all about economics.’
In a blunt assessment of the most sensitive policy area for the Conservatives, Boles says voters are right to suspect that the government cannot control immigration:
‘The difficulty that has arisen is this sense that we don’t have that control – and, bluntly, they’re right. It’s true.’
Boles believes that most voters would support a reasonable level of immigration if they did have the sense their government had a handle on it. Of course, he’s right about the impossibility of promising to drive down net migration when you have no control over EU movement, and it’s something even senior Conservatives such as George Osborne have hinted at by saying Britain needs reform of freedom of movement in order to realise that target. But Boles is saying that as freedom of movement is a fundamental principle of the EU, things won’t change. And he will likely get precious little thanks from Downing Street for pointing it out, even when it is such an obvious point.
Comments