Victorious Leave campaign must now confront internal divisions over how to execute crackdown on immigration
Boris Johnson has proposed an amnesty for illegal immigrants but Nigel Farage and his supporters likely to expect a harder line.
Campaigners to get Britain out of the European Union won their shock victory by building an alliance of older and less educated voters angry about the way globalisation has changed their lives. Now they’re telling people they won’t get what they want.
Vote Leave explicitly targeted people concerned about immigration, warning them that millions of Turks were on their way to Britain. The morning after they won Boris Johnson, their leading spokesman and the favourite to succeed David Cameron as prime minister, began backing away from that message.
We can control our own borders in a way that is not discriminatory but fair and balanced
“I want to speak directly to the millions of people who did not vote for this outcome, especially young people, who may feel that this decision in some way involves pulling up a drawbridge,” he said. “I think the very opposite is true. We can control our own borders in a way that is not discriminatory but fair and balanced, and take the wind out of the sails of the extremists and those who would play politics with immigration.”
Johnson’s discomfort with the campaign tactics that delivered him victory reflect a deep division within the backers of Brexit. Many at the top want a liberal, free market, low-regulation country modelled on London, the city Johnson led for eight years. Johnson proposed an amnesty for illegal immigrants, and said anyone with a job should be able to come to the country. But the people whose votes they relied on want dramatically reduced immigration and more regulation, even if it means being poorer.
“It’s a crucial split within the Leave group,” said Gerry Stoker, professor of political science at Southampton University. “It was absolutely clear that a lot of their supporters weren’t just voting for ending new immigration, but for sending back existing immigrants.”
The spokesman for anti-migrant angst isn’t Johnson, but Nigel Farage, whose UK Independence Party (UKIP) helped force the referendum in the first place. Farage has long wanted to get out of the EU, but only began to succeed once he linked it in people’s minds to immigration.
His argument was: “I’d rather we weren’t slightly richer and I’d rather we had communities that felt more united.”