Irresponsible and offensive rhetoric does nothing to tackle the challenge of immigration - Andrew Vine

I winced at reading that a Reform UK councillor in Kirklees had referred to immigrants as “third world animals” and then rolled my eyes in despair when the leader of the authority defended the comment.

The abusive term used by Coun Tracy Clayton in a social media post should have no place in our politics, at either a regional or a national level. Nor should the defence of it by Kirklees Council leader Coun Sarah Wood, who said: “Tracy raises an important point in the implied intent of her post”.

No she doesn’t, councillor. Name-calling gets us precisely nowhere in any sensible discussion about immigration and how best to manage it, especially the unlawful arrivals in Britain.

All this sort of irresponsible and offensive invective does is stoke prejudice. Elected representatives, whether councillors or MPs, are not voted into office to do that. They are there to stand up for the interests of those they represent by finding workable answers to problems.

And goodness knows Kirklees has more than enough of those, none of which are attributable to immigration, but the strains placed on the council by the costs of social care and provision of special educational needs.

Here is a local authority that is one of the most financially precarious anywhere in Yorkshire, facing a £24m black hole in its budget for next year and without drastic cuts facing the risk of effectively going bankrupt.

How does calling immigrants “third world animals” help address that? Will it maintain services or prevent jobs being lost?

Isn’t it in fact a distraction from the pressing job in hand for Councillors Clayton and Wood, along with the rest of their Reform UK colleagues who control the council, in ensuring the people of Kirklees get the best possible service from their local authority and it remains solvent?

The sheer disgracefulness of this social media post – which has been condemned by the four MPs for Kirklees – is highlighted by its contrast to what is being said about immigration in another part of Yorkshire, where the issue is of much greater urgency.

In Linton-on-Ouse, near York, where residents are fighting plans to stop the village being swamped by a detention centre for immigrants, their arguments against it have been advanced in a civilised manner.

At no point in their long battle, which first began in 2022, have those residents or any of the elected representatives who support them, sunk so low as to direct abuse at the people the centre would house. They are better than that.

Instead, they have made their case rationally and calmly, backed up with facts, which is the only way that this thorny issue should be discussed. As a result, those residents have been listened to.

It could be argued that the views of Coun Clayton, who hardly anybody outside her Colne Valley West ward had probably heard of until the row about her comments blew up, don’t matter much, however distasteful many people would find them.

But actually they do matter, because what she posted is symptomatic of a disturbing coarsening of public debate, in which insult and abuse have become commonplace.

The result has been to inflame tensions and even put people in fear of their safety. At its worst, this newly aggressive rabble-rousing from the sidelines – especially on social media – can cause unrest on the streets.

We saw that in the rioting around hotels housing immigrants two years ago, the worst incident of which, in Rotherham, left dozens of police officers injured as they struggled to stamp out disorder and stop the building being set on fire.

It all starts with words, with ill-judged and ill-informed opinions and assertions that quickly fuel malice and rage.

This febrile atmosphere is not only being created on the right of politics, where Reform UK sits, but on the left as well.

The decision by the Green Party to classify Zionism as racism has left Jewish people feeling even more unsafe at a time when anti-Semitic violence is at record levels and synagogues have to hold services within cordons of security to ensure the safety of those worshipping.

At both ends of the political spectrum, social media is awash with increasingly extreme views.

Last week, at the Conservative conference, the party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch, commendably challenged the increasing nastiness of so much of what is masquerading as politics by ruling out any electoral pacts with parties to her right. Labour would do well to follow her example and rule out any alliances on the left.