What is immigration? Immigration into the UK falls broadly into three categories; legal (authorised), humanitarian and illegal (irregular).

Legal immigration is supported by many well-known routes such as work, student and family visas, business investment schemes and special temporary schemes such as the Ukraine scheme.

Humanitarian immigration follows a long history of welcoming people fleeing persecution and conflict, into this country. Proud to help those who need it find sanctuary here while also honouring obligations under international law.

Support for humanitarian immigration aligns closely with our own LibDem beliefs in compassion, internationalism and the rule of law. We also believe Britain is stronger and richer when it is open to the talents and creativity of people from other countries.

Indeed, many Conservatives and, dare I say, some Reform supporters, welcome people arriving in this country on legal or humanitarian routes.

Where we differ sharply however, is in our public messaging and policy position surrounding the third category; irregular immigration.

There are many examples where right-wing populists in Reform lazily conflate all types on immigration in their rhetoric, using terms such as “mass immigration”, “millions coming into Britain” and “invasion”. To do so suits their divisive narrative, as it did throughout the Brexit campaign.

In addition, I believe that there are those on the political left, and possibly in our party, who conversely promote the belief that all who come to our shores, legally or otherwise, should be accepted and treated the same.

Both conflations are wrong.

Reform will never change their narrative; they rely too much on divisive and broad-brush anti-immigration rhetoric to feed followers with the bile and sense of grievance that is so prevalent in their messaging.

What Vote Leave did, and what Reform have mimicked to such effect, is to pervade public discourse with the fear of the ‘other’, the ‘threat’, the ‘invader’.

However, according to recent government statistics for 2024, detected irregular immigration into this county was only around 5% of total immigration. Yet Reform continues to magnify its impact and indulge in scaremongering to the extent that irregular immigration remains the salient political topic for many today.

I’m sure a significant portion of the electorate who are in and around the centre-ground, and share liberal values, have had their views on immigration influenced by the rhetoric on this subject from both the Conservatives and Reform UK.

The Conservatives under Boris Johnson recognised that such a demographic exists and also that they have a voice – and want to be listened to. This explains why they embarked on the ridiculous Rwanda Scheme; not because it was ever going to be effective or properly enacted, but because it was the Conservatives saying, “we hear you!”. Labour, soon after they came to power under Keir Starmer, worked with France to set up a new returns agreement, and strengthened law enforcement to tackle smuggling gangs…again essentially saying “we hear you!” to the same demographic.

We, as a party, have not yet articulated a message of our own, and I fear the same electorate may ignore us if this continues. We do not need a gimmick idea like the Rwanda scheme, instead let’s develop a well-thought through set of policies to manage and control illegal immigration.

Significantly, Sir Ed Davey reminded us in his autumn conference speech last year that it was the Conservatives who campaigned to rip up twenty-seven return agreements we had with EU member states to return people who had no right to be here. A position endorsed by Nigel Farage.

This is true, however that is all that was said on subject; it was brief, and it was a look back to the past. What we need now is a message for the future, to reclaim the topic of illegal immigration from the distorted rhetoric of other parties and say to the electorate “We have a plan and this is what it is…”.

We can look to recent reforms in the EU where they have begun implementing a range of measures aimed at strengthening border controls with more resources, consistent use of new biometric technologies and setting up return agreements with third countries.

Collectively these measures are aimed at instilling discipline, clarity and consistency across all its member states; an approach to managing irregular migration that this country would do well to learn from, and which we as a party can facilitate.

As well as improving legal and humanitarian pathways we also need to articulate when and under what circumstances irregular migrants would not be allowed to stay in the UK, and how it would be enforced.

The public deserve to hear when we would say “No!”

Too often in the immigration debate, our opponents present a false choice between compassion and control. Liberal Democrats should reject that choice. We should champion both.

The public wants honesty. They want a government that responds to current concerns and does not ignore them. They want a party that believes Britain can be welcoming without being naïve, humane without being ineffective, and liberal without being silent.

If we fail to articulate this, voters will assume we have no answer at all.

So let us say “we hear you!” with confidence. Because when the Liberal Democrats combine compassion with credibility, we do not just strengthen our message—we strengthen our country.

* Oliver Jacques is a a Town Councillor in Warwick.