There was a time when the Tories were considered the party of business, the sensible guardians of the economy. But the Conservatives switched — after the growth of UKIP post the 2008 global banking crisis — to become the party that focused on controlling immigration. We know the history: Take Back Control, Get Brexit Done and an 80-seat majority.
And immigration is still dominating headlines because of the rise in the number of small boats and people drowned in the sea. The work of vicious people smuggling gangs and a dramatic increase in the number of Albanian economic migrants (the largest number crossing last year) have played just as big a part. And the root problems that fuelled anger and anguish over freedom of movement — lack of housing, good jobs, crowded, underfunded schools and a cavernous gap between the South and the North — remain.
