Immigration

Few subjects move votes like immigration, and few are argued about with less reference to the numbers. It covers legal migration and work visas, asylum and the small-boat crossings, the size of the backlog, the cost of hotel accommodation, and the repeated attempts by governments of both parties to deter arrivals through deals, deterrents and legislation. The questions are genuinely hard: how to meet international obligations, control the border, and run a system that is neither cruel nor a magnet, all at once.