‘Stop the boats’ shows how Britain is really being governed: by Tory campaign leaflet | Rafael Behr

Sunak and Braverman’s cruel migration policy is a stunt to win over voters – but then gimmicks are all they have left to offer

The government’s bill for stopping boats will stop no boats. But its job is already done. The mission was accomplished on Monday night when opposition MPs voted against the proposed law at second reading in the Commons. There are more legislative hurdles to clear, yet Suella Braverman was exultant. Keir Starmer’s party, the home secretary said, had proved that it wanted “open borders and unlimited migration”.

That isn’t even a distortion of Labour policy. It is a falsehood animated by a fantasy of the party Braverman and her colleagues want to fight at the next election. For as long as there is an argument over the bill, the Tories will present themselves as the last defence against a migrant armada and its accomplices. The fifth columnists were named in Monday’s debate by Scott Benton, MP for Blackpool South: “lefty lawyers and celebrity do-gooders”.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

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