Keir Starmer's joke of an immigration plan ignores the one issue everybody is screaming about - Carole Malone

Yes, I know the numbers coming on boats –110,000 since 2019 - seem like not many compared to the 2.2million who’ve come here legally between 2021 and 2023.

But do you hear Britons complaining about those the way they do about the small boats? Do you see them rampaging in the streets about people who come here legally?

No, you don’t. Because we understand that we need skilled people to come here to do the jobs millions of lazy Brits won’t. That said, 2.2million is way too many.

But the kind of immigrationBrits objectto is the illegal kind, the kind that makes monkeys out ofus taxpayers. The kind where men of fighting age between 18-35 come here illegally from all parts of sub-SaharanAfrica pretendingto be fleeing war and persecution when they just want a life in Benefit Britain. Theythen demand hotels, housing, benefits, healthcare, education, and guess what, they get it all thanksto this weaselly Government.That’s the kind of immigration we want stopped because Brits have a sense of fair play.

Yes, they want to look after genuinerefugees,but not those lying and scamming to get here. Not those who get put in four-starhotels, when many hardworking families can’tafford to stay in four-star hotels. Not those who take rented accommodation away from our own homeless here, who are left to rot on the streets, while those who come here illegally get the red-carpet treatment.

But Starmer hasn’t mentioned that kind of immigration!

And why? Because he has no intention of doing what needs to be done to stop the boats. He just doesn’t have the guts or the political will.

But this ham-fisted, totally inadequate tinkering around the edges of legal migration with his white paper is going to seal his political death warrant.

Is he so dim he doesn’t realise that we know legal immigration will very definitely go down this year with or without his silly White Paper, because the ONS predicted it would, thanks to measures the Tories had in place. But of course, Starmer will try and claim the credit.

He laughingly says he’ll take back control of our borders. How the Hell’s he going to do that without stopping those who come here on small boats every day and are absolute proof (if we needed any) that we have lost total control of our borders.

Starmer hasn’t listened to the British people since the minute he stepped into Downing Street. He wasn’t listening to them back in 2016 when a majority voted for Brexit, and for many, that vote was about immigration and controlling the numbers who came here after Tony Blair flung open our doors years previously.

And nearly ten years on, Starmer and his Remainer cohorts still aren’t listening to the British people and are trying to unpick Brexit and throw us back into the clutches of the EU.

Starmer has no intention of controlling our borders. Since he came to power, he’s done everything to ensure that it didn’t happen. He scrapped the Rwanda deal, he also scrapped the law that said people who come here illegally couldn’t stay. He’s dismantled every single thing the Tories had in place to curb immigration and replaced it with nothing. So why the Hell does he expect us to swallow his nonsense now about controlling the borders?

The man is a monumental joke. Actually, he’s a sick joke, but the people with egg all over their faces are the British people who, if he imagines he’s hoodwinked with this ineffectual White Paper, he needs to think again.

And when he says his immigration reset isn’t “political”. And he’s doing it because

“It’s the right thing to do”, he’s lying to us – again!

The only reason this immigration White Paper exists is because of the rise of Reform. And Starmer must think we’re as thick as he is if he imagines we’re going to swallow his guff about doing the right thing. This man wouldn’t know the right thing if it smacked him in the face.

He insults our intelligence with every breath he takes. This is absolutely about politics. The White Paper is about him trying to take on Farage and Reform. It’s about him trying to compete with a party and a leader who actually understands the problems Brits have with immigration.

And no, he might not have all the answers yet but he understands we cannot keep paying billions of pounds a year to take feed and house people who shouldn’t be here.

Because the migrants he’s focused on in this White Paper aren’t the ones coming here illegally, costing us £4million a day in migrant hotels. They aren’t the ones costing us £1billion a year in benefits. It’s the illegals, and yet he makes no mention of them in his silly speech, where he tries to blame the Tories for everything, even though illegal immigration has rocketed under his government. More than 11,500 have made the channel crossing since January- that’s 2,000 up on the same time last year under the Tories

Starmer might think he’s hoodwinked the British people with this ineffectual White Paper and his ludicrous speech - but he hasn’t. Not for a minute. He’s just confirmed what we all knew – that he’s not remotely serious about curbing immigration. He and Yvette Cooper even tried to rename it for God’s sake, calling it “ irregular” migration so as to not make it sound so bad and not upset the migrants presumably.

Starmer just talks big and achieves nothing. This White paper will achieve nothing, but it’s at least cemented our belief that, where taking back control of our borders is concerned, this excuse for a Prime Minister hasn’t a hope!