The trouble with targets: immigration is a potential headache for Labour

Party has avoided numbers when discussing its policy but as election nears it will have to be more specific

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Last Tuesday, Keir Starmer spent a good 20 minutes answering media questions on Labour’s immigration policies at a science park near Milton Keynes. But with the Conservatives simultaneously tearing themselves apart over their Rwanda bill, not many people noticed.

“It’s funny, that happens quite a lot,” one Labour official said. “We do have immigration policies, but they’re not very dramatic, so sometimes they don’t get much attention. The idea is it’s better to be credible than flashy.”