NIGEL Farage is the only winner from a Prime Minister’s Questions clash between Keir Starmer and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, according to the SNP.
The Prime Minister and Badenoch traded blows over the Tory record on immigration, with Starmer rehearsing attacks on the previous Government’s “one nation experiment in open borders”.
Badenoch asked why Starmer had not identified cutting immigration as “a priority” in a speech last week where the Prime Minister attempted to redefine this troubled Government’s agenda.
The Tory leader said: “He has relaunched yet again, many new targets, six milestones, five missions, but why was cutting immigration not a priority?”
Starmer (below) replied: “I’m glad she now wants to talk about immigration, last week she said she didn’t, and for good reason, because the previous government presided over record high levels of immigration. The figures just a few weeks ago, nearly a million on net migration.
“That is unprecedented, a one nation experiment in open borders under the last government, and she was the champion, she stood up and praised the then Tory home secretary for listening to her on removing caps on migration visas.”
He went on to say that Labour would bring down both lawful and illegal immigration.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn suggested that Farage, leader of Reform UK, was the real beneficiary of the immigration issue dominating the full exchange between the Prime Minister and Badenoch.
He said: “Only one person wins from PMQs being dominated by these race to the bottom arguments on immigration. And it’s neither Keir, nor Kemi.”
Badenoch (below) hit back over Starmer's criticism of her previous stance on immigration, saying she had wanted more "skilled migration" while the PM was "supporting all of the people who should not have been in this country".
She added: "Four years ago, the Prime Minister signed a letter demanding that foreign criminals be allowed to stay in Britain. Dozens of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs repeatedly signed these letters insisting that rapists and murderers be allowed to stay here.
“One of those criminals, Ernesto Elliott, had 17 convictions, including for knife crime. After his deportation was blocked, Elliott went on to murder someone.
"He was able to stay here and murder because people like this man campaigned against deporting criminals. Will he apologise for signing these letters?”
Starmer said that case was "an example of failure under her government to take the necessary measures to keep our country safe" and said that immigration was now four times higher than when Britain left the EU.
Both the Tories and Labour are bleeding support to Farage's party, which is preying on both parties' vulnerabilities on the immigration issue.
Morgan McSweeney, the PM's chief of staff, is said to have told Labour MPs they must talk about immigration more frequently, in a move widely seen as a bid to reclaim the debate from Reform.
Starmer used a speech last month to spell out Labour's offensive against the Tories on immigration after figures showed that net migration – the number of people entering the UK, minus those leaving – reached 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
