Labour blow a big chance on youth mobility

After Southport’s grief was disrupted by pondlife egged on by grifters, the name hit me like a brick to the head, closely followed by one to the testicles: Lee Atwater.

Atwater was the Republican strategist who helped George Bush Snr win the 1988 US election. He ran a dogwhistling campaign which painted rival Michael Dukakis as an enabler of a rapist and murderer named Willie Horton, who is black. “I’ll make Willie Horton Dukakis’s running mate,” Atwater said.

Dying of cancer three years later, Atwater apologised to Dukakis, admitting that he had been an “ugly campaigner”, that his linking of the Democrat to Horton made him “sound racist”, and that beating Dukakis had been achieved “because of our successful manipulation of his campaign themes”. Perhaps one day in the future, the likes of Nigel Farage will have the self-awareness and grace to say similar about their own activities. Don’t hold your breath.

Atwater is credited with another phrase that seems apposite almost every week in politics, but particularly so this week: “Perception is reality.” Whatever the reality of what happened in Southport and Harehills, many will choose to believe the misleading spin applied to it by Farage and his toadies and familiars – especially when amplified by a compliant right wing press.

Meanwhile, when it comes to justifying the spending brakes she imposed on Monday, Rachel Reeves so far appears to be winning the perception battle, thanks in part to Conservative duplicity that was exposed by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. But with the Daily Mail’s wire-haired attack dog Andrew Neil foaming at the mouth, can Reeves overcome false perceptions that scrapping the winter fuel budget payment to all pensioners was an attack on vulnerable people? Can she persuade voters of the reality that, as my colleague Liz Gerard has pointed out, the universal handout was unjustified and unsustainable?

Labour have taken risks over how to fill the “£22bn Tory black hole”, but on another matter this week they have been less brave. And again it is a matter of perception and reality.

After a Sunday Telegraph report claimed Keir Starmer was edging towards a so-called “free movement for young people” deal with the EU, proposed by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez, a government spokesperson was quickly sent out to declare: “We have been clear that we won’t rejoin the single market, customs union or reintroduce freedom of movement, and we are not considering a youth mobility scheme.”

This might be viewed as smart politics while the notion of “freedom of movement” is still toxic to many voters, and reviled by the noisy likes of Farage and the Mail. But what Sanchez and Starmer have discussed has very little to do with free movement.

Under the proposals, young Europeans would only be allowed to live and work in Britain (and young Britons in the EU) for a two-year period, with no right to settle. This would only replicate the youth mobility schemes Britain already has in place with 13 other countries, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Canada and Uruguay. It is no more radical than the other small and sensible measures to reset Britain’s relationship with the EU that Starmer has already proposed.

Early in their government, just as they are being open about economic reality, Labour have squandered a chance to deal in the reality of what youth mobility would mean. Now they risk incorrect perception taking root while the ambitions of young people remain grounded.