Vast majority of Britons think the UK government is doing a bad job on borders and asylum, polling finds, with Nigel Farage’s party most-trusted to get it right.
More polling for Britain’s bullheaded left-wing government illustrating the disconnect between government policy and public opinion, with a overwhelming 71 per cent of voters saying they believe the Prime Minister is handling the migrant hotel issue badly.
Even more damaging for the government in the results, by pollster YouGov for The Times, is the revelation even a majority — at 56 per cent — of Labour voters agree that the government is doing a bad job.
Indeed, the sentiment against the government’s handling of immigration and asylum is so hostile the pollster appears to have struggled to find anyone in favour, with ‘don’t know’ at 17 per cent a larger cohort of Britons than the just one per cent who said they thought Labour are doing ‘very well’.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, has recently announced a comprehensive anti-illegal migration policy including detaining migrants prior to deportation and disassembling the web of Tony Blair-era human rights infrastructure that hitherto has blocked radical action. Given that, it may be unsurprising that YouGov found Farage’s party is seen to be the “best placed” to act decisively on migration.
The Conservative Party, once the dominant force of British politics and said by some to be the most successful political party in world history has also been speaking out on the migrant crisis and its consequences in recent months as part of a bid to reclaim public trust after letting migrant arrivals soar over its last period in power. The YouGov poll suggests it continues to seriously struggle in this endeavour, however, with just six per cent saying they are “best placed”.
The primacy of immigration as the political subject Britons care about most was also confirmed in this polling. When given a selection of topics to say they think is most important, the largest group was immigration at 37 per cent. Traditional focuses of British politics — and where politicians generally feel most at home — like economy on 25 per cent and health at seven per cent trailed far behind.
In their reporting of the poll, The Times also introduced criticism from Labour Party grandee David Blunkett, who was Home Secretary — the senior government minister who, among other things, has responsibility for immigration and asylum policy — in the last Labour government between 2001 and 2004. He said Prime Minister Starmer now needs to be more “radical” to get a “grip” on issue else lose the faith of the public, even if the polling suggests it may be rather too late for that.
Blunkett said: “At the moment the issue is so toxic and beginning to get out of the government’s grip to the point it is very hard to bring it back. A further package of actions is absolutely vital to start controlling both the public narrative and the delivery.
“If this slips out of our hands, it’s incredibly difficult to pull it back. Once people have got it in their heads that the government haven’t a grip and that this is an intractable problem, they will turn on you. That is meat and drink. It’s the old cry, ‘For god’s sake, do something’.”
These shots fired by a grand old man of the Labour Party at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has a somewhat ironical circularity to it. As sometimes recalled, a bid by the Home Office under Blunkett in 2003 to get some control over the asylum system by slightly limiting what benefits arrivals could claim from the taxpayer ended in the government losing its court case against a group of asylum seekers represented by then-high flying human rights lawyer Keir Starmer.
Starmer would go on to become Director of Public Prosecutions, a tenure that was either very controversial or not depending on the politics of the observer, and then on to be a Labour Member of Parliament and eventually Prime Minister.
The figures are the latest dire polling for Britain’s Labour government which has seen a historic collapse in support since it came to power in what admittedly a loveless victory-by-default last summer. Earlier this month polling found Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had plunged to a new record low in personal polling, and 68 per cent saying they disapproved of the government.
In July, another poll found a large majority of Britons believe crime is “out of control” and do not have faith in Starmer’s government to get control. Farage’s Reform UK was again seen as the answer by the largest group of respondents, albeit in a plurality rather than majority.
Worst of all for Starmer, perhaps, given the evident disdain his left-wing clique held the U.S. President in until their jobs required them to act nice, was polling that found U.S. President Donald Trump is more popular among Britons.
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