SONALI: MESSAGE OF HOPE

Immigration has been the most polarising issue of our age. Yet it was settlement policy - the immigration of the recent past – that caused the first public rifts in Andy Burnham’s government. The prime minister inherited a stand-off: how far was it fair to change the rules for those who had come to Britain, in record numbers, over the past five years?

No flagship government policy for decades has changed so much after consultation. Cue fierce political arguments about why. Right-wing opposition parties depicted home secretary Shabana Mahmood as the only Labour voice willing to get a grip – before being forced to back down by soft-headed pro-migration colleagues. The centre-left critique was that the government had picked a damaging fight with its own side when it would never be able to satisfy hardline demands to send the so-called ‘Boriswave’ home.