The prime minister’s immigration approach follows a now-familiar pattern: letting fear of a difficult argument get in the way of policy that might work
Keir Starmer is embattled but not threatened. It is a strange combination. He is not challenged by Kemi Badenoch, who is weak in parliament and irrelevant outside it. Nor is the prime minister in immediate peril from Reform, the Liberal Democrats or the Greens. They pose electoral challenges in the coming years but they can’t stop the government passing laws in the meantime. The Labour leader is not in danger from backbench rebellion. Dissenting MPs grow in number but not at the rate that presages regicide.
Starmer has been dealt a tough hand in some ways. He inherited a rotten economy in a volatile world. But he also has advantages not enjoyed by many of his predecessors: a vast Commons majority, an obedient cabinet, a splintered opposition. His greatest problem isn’t a politician or party. It isn’t an industrial lobby or foreign power. It is a question, small but deeply penetrating: why?
Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
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