Sir Keir went into this year’s online-only Labour Conference promising to fly the flag of patriotism and win back the former red wall. Guido can reveal Sir Keir’s decades-long arguments against even the most rudimentary immigration controls, arguing in the 80s that “whether implemented by the Tories or Labour”, “it is not a question of numbers, it’s a question of racism”. Will new Tory voters be able to trust Sir Keir’s Labour after this?

Writing a review of Immigration Law and Practice for a 1988 edition of Socialist Lawyer magazine, Starmer claimed there is a “racist undercurrent” which “permeates all immigration law”, making the extreme claims while reviewing an academic book on immigration law and concluding Britain is “not very civilised at all” with a “racist and sexist” set of laws.

Sir Keir wholeheartedly agreed with a claim that the “mark of a good immigration book is that it leaves the reader smouldering with anger” and that the book had indeed left him smouldering.

Sir Keir hasn’t abandoned his far-left utopianism, this year having written to ‘Labour for Free Movement‘ saying he will “always” argue in favour of immigration, and wants a “radical” change of our immigration system. Speaking to Times Radio just yesterday, the Labour Leader confessed he would open the UK’s borders to anyone wanting to live here: “family members should be able to live together”, and the UK “couldn’t function” without free movement of people who want to work here; claiming there’s “much more consensus than people appreciate”. Guido reckons Starmer will have a hard time selling no controls on immigration to the Blue Wall…