Rishi Sunak makes a promise he can keep on immigration

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Good morning. Rishi Sunak has unveiled a series of measures to tackle the Channel crossings. Some thoughts on all that below.

Tackling Britain’s asylum system

Sunak proposes that anyone who comes to the UK from Albania or other “safe countries” without a visa should be returned to that country at haste and without appeal. The prime minister has pledged to increase the number of UK border staff — some of whom will be posted at Tirana airport, under a new deal with the country — and to have processed the backlog of 92,601 asylum claims by the end of 2023.

These policy proposals have a lot to recommend them: these are promises that the government can actually keep, and as such are a big improvement on where the Conservatives were before.

It is perfectly reasonable to say that if you have come to the UK without a visa from a country that is a Nato member and an EU accession candidate, as Albania is, then you will be returned there.

As I wrote at greater length in my column a while back, a good rule of thumb for when you are doing a lot of things badly (as UK immigration policy is) is simply to do less. And one way to do less is to just say that anyone coming to the UK without a visa from Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Eritrea or Hong Kong has a good reason to do so and that anyone from most countries outside that group should go back to their home country and fill out an application like everyone else.

Sunak’s target to clear the backlog of pre-existing immigration claims is something the UK state ought to be able to do: unlike the mooted net immigration target, which the UK cannot meaningfully control, it’s simply a matter of resource.

But the flipside of that is that the UK’s existing Border Force staff are already planning to go on strike and public sector pay is already lagging way behind private sector pay.

If you want more officials processing asylum claims, you have to pay for them. Doing so and keeping to the government’s fiscal rules means tax rises (though economists say its £28bn estimate of the cost is misleading), and we have already seen how reluctant the Conservative party is to sign off on more of those.

Sunak has made a big step forward in setting out proposals that he can deliver and making promises he can keep. That is a challenge for his party, who have in recent years become very keen on calling for expensive policies, but are much less interested in footing the bill.

The plan’s biggest hole, however, is the absence of safe, legal routes for people to seek asylum in the UK. It’s a truth almost as old as money that if you don’t provide a service legally someone else will provide it illegally. As today’s news of people feared dead in the Channel reminds us, people are willing to risk death to get to the UK. No amount of extra border guards, deportations to Rwanda, or efforts to combat organised crime here or abroad will change that. The best way to prevent people seeking asylum in the UK using small boats is to let them take the ferry.

Shameless self-promotion

My column this week is on landraces: the ancient crop varieties that could help avoid global catastrophe. I’m biased of course, but I think that my illustrator Ewan White is a generational talent who manages to do something clever and beautiful with whatever I throw at him. I find this comforting, because I think my best chance at immortality is that at some point in 23343, an exhibition at Tate Alpha Centauri will do a retrospective of Ewan’s early work.

Now try this

Do yourself a favour and go to the cinema and watch Violent Night. The film sees a disillusioned Santa Claus (played by David Harbour) discover a group of hardened criminals mid-heist while he is going about his annual deliveries. The horror-comedy is a cross between Die Hard and Miracle on 34th Street.

This is a film that deserves to be enjoyed in a cinema in the company of friends and free-flowing alcohol. The movie manages to combine a plot that is incredibly stupid and at the same time painfully earnest: it really shouldn’t work but somehow does. I laughed until I cried, albeit mostly at moments the filmmakers did not intend.

Top stories today

• Inflation eases | Inflation in the UK dipped to 10.7 per cent in November as lower petrol prices helped to ease the rate of price increases from a 41-year high last month.

• UK-India deal | The UK’s trade secretary has refused to commit to a deadline to finalise a much-hyped trade agreement with India, but said that looming elections in both countries were increasing pressure to secure a deal.

• Wave of strike action intensifies | Royal Mail workers go on strike alongside rail industry staff today over pay and employment terms. Downing Street said pay restraint was needed to “get a grip on inflation”.

• Visa routes for migrant workers | Ministers should resist calls from employers to open new visa routes that could expose migrant workers to exploitation, the UK government’s Migration Advisory Committee said yesterday.

• Partygate rolls on | Ministers have been accused of writing a “blank cheque” for Boris Johnson’s legal bills, as it emerged taxpayer-funded support was being extended to help defend him against claims he misled parliament over Partygate, the Guardian has learned. Ministers have previously said public money is being used to defend Johnson, even though he is no longer a member of the government, because the inquiry “has potential implications for all future statements by ministers of the crown in current and future administrations”.

Inside Politics is edited by Georgina Quach. Follow Stephen on Twitter @stephenkb and please send gossip, thoughts and feedback to insidepolitics@ft.com.