Britain’s right-wing politicians are perpetually angry about immigration. They have been for the past 15 years (at least). But this time is different – and more sinister – because they’re making it about race.
Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf have been raging about “small boats” carrying “fighting age” migrants from Muslim countries. And Robert Jenrick has been wailing about “not seeing another white face” in an area of Birmingham.
Take a glance at the posts on Elon Musk’s hate platform X and you’ll see right-wing politicians and influencers desperately trying to compete for the title of Britain’s biggest racist.
Reform UK has built its entire political existence on resentment towards the changing face of Britain – and the Conservatives, terrified of losing their base, have followed them into the swamp.
But here’s the truth: our current immigration system was designed by the very people who complain the loudest about immigration. In fact, the status quo is exactly what they promised.
It’s a familiar story by now, but the implementation of Brexit has seen a dramatic reduction in the number of migrants coming to the UK from the EU, replaced by those from non-EU, typically non-white countries.
This has been called the “Boriswave” – a racist right-wing meme that attaches blame for higher non-white immigration levels to the policies of the former prime minister.
But this isn’t the full story. In fact, every element of the Brexit campaign advocated for more non-white immigration – including Nigel Farage.
In 2016, the official Vote Leave campaign actively advocated for more immigration from non-European countries. This wasn’t a fringe message – it was a central pillar of the campaign. As the Financial Times reported in May that year:
“Vote Leave is hoping to secure the backing of British Asians by telling them that if Britain quits the EU, it will mean more immigration from elsewhere in the world.”
As the FT put it, Vote Leave’s strategy was to argue that:
“a British exit from the EU would help to stem the flow of Eastern Europeans into the UK – allowing more incomers from Commonwealth countries to take their place.”
That message was repeated by leading Brexiteers.
Saqib Bhatti, now a Conservative MP and shadow education minister, said at the time:
“South Asian immigrants have ancestors who fought in the world wars, they sacrificed a lot, they speak the language, they have the skills, they are well educated. But they find it hard to come in compared to other individuals from Europe who may not speak the language, understand the culture or have the skills.”
Vote Leave chair Gisela Stuart echoed the same theme:
“Immigration matters, and it is the first and second-generation immigrants who are concerned about immigration… Families of second or third-generation immigrants from the Indian subcontinent find it really difficult: they say, why do we have to jump so many hurdles just to bring in relatives for a wedding?”
And Priti Patel went even further, using her role as Britain’s “Indian diaspora champion” to promise a friendlier regime for non-European migrants:
“Temples and gurdwaras have difficulties bringing priests in. Our communities struggle to get visas for kabbadi players to come and share their phenomenal sporting talents in this country,” she said – adding that curry houses were being deprived of high-quality chefs because “uncontrolled immigration” from the EU had led to tighter controls on talented migrants from elsewhere.
Brexiteers, in other words, sold their project as a return to the Commonwealth, to a “Global Britain” open to the world beyond Europe.
Even Nigel Farage made a forceful case for more non-white migrants.
A Daily Mail headline on 8 June 2016 stated:
“More black people will be allowed into Britain if we leave the EU and immigration will become a ‘non-issue’, says Nigel Farage.”
Farage claimed that Britain had:
“been stupid to turn our backs on the Commonwealth in favour of EU membership.”
He argued that EU freedom of movement had made it “very difficult” for “qualified and skilled migrants from India and Africa” to come to Britain.
According to The Mail, after the Brexit vote, Farage favoured implementing an Australian points-based immigration policy, which would lead to “more black people” qualifying to enter the UK.
Ironically, Boris Johnson’s government – now the whipping boy of the far-right – implemented a points-based immigration system that directly reflected Farage’s favoured position prior to the vote.
Even Daniel Hannan, a supposed intellectual of Brexit, promised a global cosmopolitan utopia. Writing in 2016, he said:
“A points-based immigration system invites the world’s top talent; and the consequent sense of having had to win a place competitively means that new settlers arrive with commensurate pride and patriotism.”
Boris Johnson too. In a speech titled “The liberal cosmopolitan case to Vote Leave”, Johnson complained that EU rules prevented Britain from welcoming the “brilliant students” and NHS workers from Commonwealth nations:
“In our desperation to meet our hopeless so-called targets, we push away brilliant students from Commonwealth countries, who want to pay to come to our universities; we find ourselves hard pressed to recruit people who might work in our NHS… because we have absolutely no power to control the numbers who are coming with no job offers and no qualifications from the 28 EU countries.”
Douglas Carswell, the first MP to defect from the Tories to Farage’s UKIP, told The Guardian shortly after the referendum that:
“Well, unless you want to become like North Korea, labour mobility is going to happen.”
He added that he neither expected nor wanted Brexit to reduce immigration – simply to make it more “controlled”.
That’s the same Douglas Carswell who recently tweeted: “From Epping to the sea, let’s make England Abdul free.”
So here we are.
The very people who pledged that Brexit would result in surging levels of non-white immigration, now froth with rage that their promise came true.
Migration from the EU has collapsed since Brexit, replaced by arrivals from India, Nigeria, Pakistan and beyond – people with good intentions whose only mistake was answering the call made by Farage, Johnson, and their acolytes nine years ago.
Brexiteers hate the world they created
For years, the people who led us to the precipice of leaving the EU claimed that casting off its “shackles” would allow Britain to “take back control” of its borders.
About me
I’m an investigative journalist and current affairs writer who has worked with the New York Times, the Guardian, the Mirror, the New European, Novara Media, New Statesman, Led By Donkeys, and others.
I specialise in exposing dark money and radical right-wing ecosystems.
I also write a lot about inequality and elitism, and am the author of two books on those very subjects: Fortress London, and Bullingdon Club Britain.
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Seems like a classic consequence of having cake and eating it (cakeism). 😂
Thank you for reminding people of this! As someone who campaigned for remain, I was baffled that Farage thought this approach would be appreciated by his far right base, but hugely annoyed at the cynicism. It was always inevitable he would betray the Asian voters who supported him as a result, as he is now proposing.
The irony: unlike the promises over the NHS, mass immigration from south Asia was the one "Brexit benefit" that was achieved, albeit mostly through student visas.