The main political parties will be forced to dance to Nigel Farage’s tune

Real, radical reforms are the only antidote to Reform’s impractical populism

_{24 August 2025 Tom Harris Daily Telegraph}

In at least one, significant, way, Nigel Farage has already won.

It is now unambiguously established that the Reform UK leader’s political priority, immigration, is not only shared by the British public but by the other main political parties too. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives welcome this state of affairs. Labour, with its activist base almost entirely devoted to the “strengths” of diversity and inclusion and always at the ready to attend any photo opportunity clutching their “Refugees welcome here” placards, nevertheless recognises that the issue has a significant downside when it comes to elections. The Conservatives, meanwhile, would rather no more attention were brought to bear on their own appalling record on immigration while in office.

While the nation’s attention will be focused on Farage’s big announcement of “mass deportations” on Tuesday, the hard, cynical facts of today’s politics cannot be denied: the only reason Labour and the Conservatives are talking tough on immigration is because of Reform’s lead in the opinion polls. Were it not for the insurgent party’s popularity and recent electoral successes, the other two parties would be eager and willing to return to business as usual – talking about taxation, the NHS, employment – in fact, anything that would help them avoid the i-word.

Instead they must stand ready with their dismissive pre-prepared responses to Farage’s announcement. The insoluble problem they face is that while his new policy of turning disused RAF bases into holding camps for illegal immigrants, possibly turning Ascension Island into the same, and abandoning Britain’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights, is indeed unlikely to withstand any level of robust scrutiny, ministers and Conservative spokespersons will nevertheless spend most of this week talking about Reform policy.

Which is, of course, what Farage wants and needs. He has forced the two main parties into prioritising his own policy priority, and now he will force them to attack his own proposed remedies. What he recognises and what, from the evidence so far, his opponents do not, is that whether his plans are workable or not barely matters. What matters is the impression that discontented voters will receive as the rights and wrongs of Reform policy are debated across our TV studios. 

And that impression will essentially be along these lines: a small, insurgent party is at least coming up with ideas to address voters’ concerns. It recognises that a crisis demands radical solutions, even if those solutions are necessarily controversial. But the moderate, thoughtful, tolerant policies of the main parties have only made the situation worse. Meanwhile, Labour and the Conservatives will further cement their reputations as complacent and uncaring of ordinary citizens’ concerns by having a go at Reform’s plans rather than coming up with their own.

Now, it doesn’t take long to see through this fragile construct. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives can afford to ignore Farage on the day of such an important announcement. Neither can they avoid their own responsibilities to point out the weaknesses of Reform’s policies and the legal traps that await any government that shortcuts through human rights legislation. There’s also the small problem that large parts of the announced policies may indeed risk social chaos, waste police and military resources and be genuinely unworkable. Neither of the main parties would be meeting their own responsibilities by ignoring any of this.

Which is why they’re both likely to be on a hiding to nothing. As Ben Pringle wrote this week on LabourList, Labour’s personal attacks on Farage simply aren’t working but risk cementing his position in the minds of Reform-curious voters as an outsider who scares the establishment. Attacks on policy and competence can work better, but that carries an additional risk of drawing attention to the fact that Reform sees itself as a government-in-waiting rather than just a vehicle for Farage’s own, distinct and larger-than-life personality.

The real answer, regrettably (regrettable for the parties, that is) is to come up with their own radical policies. No more tightening the rules here and there, no more “one in, one out” agreements with France, no more harsh words for activist judges who allow foreign criminals to remain in the UK for the most absurd reasons. Real, radical reforms are the only antidote to Reform’s impractical populism: the complete restructuring and streamlining of the immigration appeals process, strict new rules that prevent “asylum tourism” where applicants travel through numerous safe countries in order to reach the UK, less tolerance for those who have “lost” their identity and travel papers en route to Dover.

Even then, it will be difficult to wrest the political initiative from Farage and Reform. But the attempt needs to be made anyway, even if in doing so, the main parties are explicitly accepting the fact that everyone is now dancing to Nigel Farage’s tune.