‘Red Wall’ label divides Labour figures and voters over immigration strategy

Sir Almaviva171

Also you will never "fix immigration" (horrible expression) enough for the racists to stop thinking about it. It's a project doomed to fail, apart from also being morally bankrupt.

Alexander Glass35

She doesn't realuse, or she doesn't care, that the far right will never see immigration as 'fixed'. They need people to victimise. If net migration were zero, they would focus on removing status from people. They have already indicated this. They aren't hiding it.

Charles EP Murphy17

"earned citizenship" is a nasty phrase to drop in when the process of earning citizenship is long, costly, and goes through multiple tests & checks, 'yeah but that's still not enough because some of _those people_ got it'

Earned settlement is the hard red line for me. Reducing immigration is one thing, but mass deportation of legal immigrants who’ve followed all the rules via retrospective rule changes is just evil. Why would anyone vote Labour to stop Reform when they’re just the same thing?

Georgina12

So many issues with that post and I realise this is the least of them, but I find it odd to see someone of the party of government talking about ‘occupying space’ like it’s all just jockeying and they couldn’t, y’know, get on with the fucking job of improving life for all of us, migrants included

John Andrews11

I would be prepared to place a substantial monetary bet that this particular MP enters the next election wearing a different rosette.

Paul Tyreman 〓〓9

Has Antonia considered that the UK *has* secure borders and earned citizenship?

Andrew Brook9

She means once they have placated Reform voters over immigration in what was the red wall then they can win them back with their other policies. This is the exact reason I have refused to campaign for Labour in the local elections. It is a disgusting policy and won’t even have the excuse of success

Guy Bailey8

Immigration will never be "fixed" for Reform supporters and their ilk as long as they see one black face in their high street or on their TV.

nadiawithaboringj.bsky.social7

How dare she think she speaks for us. The "red wall" has its share of racist knobs or people looking for easy answers but every day I see acts of acceptance and attempts to reach out and make immigrants feel welcome and at home from working class northern red wall voters.

Juditty6

Bance’s tweets above indicate her main driver is keeping Labour in power. How about just getting on and doing things to improve life for everyone who lives here?

Stevie6

Proof positive that in the remaining time before the next GE labour will not change. Immigrants are good for the country and the sooner we kick every bigot out of parliament the better.

Jez 🤍💛💙5

She sounds sort of fascisty. Is she Reform? *Checks* Ah, Labour. Same thing then.

Anianegwr4

There is a particular demographic in Wales, to which I belong, that has long seen through the pretence of Labour's progressivism. Try being a Welsh speaker, ask for a modicum of political agency and watch them turn into frothing little pots of self-righteous anger.

Suddenly, a Goat!4

'red wall voters' who all presumably work for the Times or other rags

George Buchanan4

She’s also transphobic and homophobic… no surprise ; she’s an arch social conservative who wants a return to the 1950s

Steve Forecast3

'Immigration ' is only on people's minds because Labour keeps it there.

Máirtín Ó Loċlainn3

Thought I recognised the name from a different thread, no interest in the impact of University cut backs even if it impacts her constituency The only thing she claims to care about is industry. But coal mines have gone, the ship yards aren't coming back. Now try having a car factory compete with BYD

Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪3

SPOILER ALERT: There are no Labour voters left in the Red Wall. They've all switched to either Reform or the Greens.

Chris Smith3

It's clear that Brexit severely damaged the Labour Party. The belief that because a significant portion of their voters voted to leave, they were obliged to pander to racists. It has destroyed any sense of moral purpose and values that once was the basis of the party.

evo1963.bsky.social3

Straight out of Reform’s playbook.

Alan Paxton 3

Just got home from a thread on the University crisis where Antonia demonstrated her total inability to grasp the basics of economics. Now beginning to think part of why Labour is screwed is the quality of their MPs.

TWOMARD3

"Fixed" also means made sufficiently brutal so as to make it something Reform/the media can't hit them as being soft on. And since they will never not be called soft on immigration by Reform/the media for as long as we live this means in reality it will never be fixed, but will be made more brutal.

Fernsfeldflyer2

Is immigration the most important issue for most people, or is it a useful distraction for politicians of all colours who have no ideas on improving the economy and the living standards of all of us, and can't face the big issues like climate change and all that it is bringing.

Rich2

More concerned about keeping her job than actually helping constituents or country

willaminawallace.bsky.social2

It’s truly hideous.. the people who live here are all our people Labour are so disappointing

Soph05712

What needs fixed is this utterly appalling fixation on all things immigration on an Island built by immigrants and who has a social contract with the commonwealth cause you know, empire The problem is that people who should know better pander to far right nasty rather than standing up to it

Andy King2

I can’t emphasise enough how badly Labour politicians beclowning themselves in this manner is going down with people who voted for change in the last general election. We voted for change *to something better*. If we’d wanted a Conform* tribute act we’d have voted Conform. *Conservative/Reform

Dan Davies64

"once immigration is fixed we can turn to cost of living and the economy" is quite the FAFO set of policies in a country with our demographics.

Nils 🥚12

Indeed. And sadly this was my exact and overly polite point that she was responding to.

New-Cleckit Dominie9

Something the discussion of electoral salience tends to miss: I'm "concerned about immigration", in the sense that parties' immigration policies matter to me because (a) student visa restrictions are throttling my industry, and (b) there are bastards out there who want to deport my cousins.

Scornflake Grrrl7

“Earned citizenship” is such a hateful term anyway. 2 babies can born on the same day in the same hospital, one to (at least one) British parent, the other to parents on a visa (which can be a long long time now) - one will have to “earn” while the other is granted it automatically. How is that fair

A Rachel for all seasons6

I am convinced it’s a vicious cycle: if you keep mentioning immigration as a government/party, you make it seem like a huge issue, then a lot of the voters will mirror that because the government is saying it and so presumably it knows what it’s talking about… so they talk more.

Alex Wasyliw6

The sheer naivety of thinking there is some magical destination where immigration is "fixed" for voters who are being continuously radicalised against immigration is one of the more concerning aspects about this.

Sir Almaviva5

Hence the "mythical" in my post :)

Adam Brown5

People are concerned about things like the cost of living, the graduate job market, lack of social housing, social fragmentation. Inevitably, cynical racists try to take advantage by claiming the cause of those problems is brown people. And rather than pushing back, labour go along with that framing

Altreik5

Yes I think this is v true and made worse by the fact that people in these areas who are likely to engage with politicians will naturally be more likely to be retired or have strong views! I think a lot of lab politicians still think they should get 65% of the vote in these areas

Matthew Kilburn4

Immigration will never be fixed in the minds of many of those voters. I fear Bance may be on a fool's errand.

Inigo Purcell3

Yeah I think you are really right and like... I do think one of the big errors Labour have made is forgetting that even people who are a bit bigoted/quite bigoted are very rarely absolute single issue bigots who cares about literally nothing else. And, indeed, that people can change.

Shaky Boy2

They are making the mistake nearly all politicians in all countries make. They think they just need to show the electorate how good they are and they will never be out of power again. This never works because a significant percentage of the population will always be ignorant about most things in>

LaIslaBonita2

I’d say those most anti-immigration and pro-reform or Restore etc are pretty unlikely to be interested in ‘earned citizenship’ - because they just ‘want them all gone’ - cheering at the notion of 400000 deportations tho with little idea of who that means.

N2

Honestly it's as if she's never been canvassing in her constituency

Stevie2

The Red Wall Voter has always been a myth leant on by lazy labour politicians. It should be pointed out that said politicians are completely apolitical as proven by their words. They really do not have a political clue.

Ken Tindell2

I think you might have spotted the tiny flaw in Starmer’s 4D chess game plan.

Lee14

Immigration will never be "off people's mind" until there are no immigrants (or their descendants) left in the UK. We see that already in the way that the debate has moved on from "stop the boats" to mass deportations. There is no winning that game.

lesleya.bsky.social7

Where did this fashion for mini-parties come from? Good luck with the Labour (Red Wall Bigots) Party @antoniabance.bsky.social the rest of us can see your posts and can vote alternatively.

Dave Wilson5

As a Labour member I find this abhorrent. There no basis for it in any agreed policy. It’s against everything the Party (as against the PLP it seems) stands for.

Dr Jo Edge 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿5

She desperately needs to log off and ask someone to change her password.

Steve 🏳️‍🌈🇬🇧4

Instead of educating people she just going to pander to the ignorance in their minds.

nearlytoolate4

‘Fixed’? They really think this will stop immigration being weaponised by racist populists?

Will Bramhill4

Red Wall = the view among Spoons drinkers

Jim Obey2

After 14 yrs of Tory nastiness, secure borders, earned citizenship and balanced budgets are the red lines for this Cons...I mean Labour government. Wonder why their leaching support? 🤔

Jerked Gherkins2

bestie, the real red line is how we expect people to constantly risk it all while we sit cozy in our brined jars. like, make it make sense!

Innocent Canaryfeather 🇵🇸🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈2

I would reply that to her directly, but for some reason ... 🥹 👉👈 ... I am blocked.

Nils 🥚7

Even if I’m being charitable and decide to ignore the right of immigrants and trans people, they’re doing terribly on their own terms and economic track record. The least they could do is own the fuck up and change direction and it’s baffling that they won’t.

Nils 🥚2

I feel like I’m going crazy. My employer is about to shed a quarter of its workforce and we’re the 1st or 2nd biggest employer in the constituency. The local MP has said absolutely nothing about it. There’s this assumption that because we’re London we’re already spoken for, and we’re really not.