Immigration is a nettle that must be grasped or it risks our democracy - Dame Jackie Doyle-Price

The truth is that most of this has happened legally. Rishi Sunak could bang on about stopping the boats until the cows come home but the real problem is legal migration.

Put simply we are issuing that many visas to allow people to come here, Any Government that is serious about reducing immigration needs to stop issuing visas. It is in the Government’s gift. So why after years of promises does immigration continue to rise? After all, many people were seduced by the ‘take back control’ message during the Brexit referendum.

The end of free movement was widely believed to allow for reducing immigration and informed many people’s votes. And yet legal immigration is higher than ever. Sadly employers have got used to cheap labour from overseas. As a Member of Parliament I was regularly lobbied to add more occupations to the skilled worker shortage list.

We should be paying our own workers more not importing cheaper workers. But by far the biggest category is students and their dependents. It is received wisdom that our world beating university sector needs to be able to provide places for students from overseas. It has also allowed for tuition fees to remain static for our own students as universities are able to make more money from foreign students.

But if any Government is serious about reducing migration it needs to be tackled. Its an easy way in. And if it means that some institutions will struggle then that also needs to be tackled.

Because we simply cannot go on like this. We haven’t built enough new homes to provide for a population growing at this rate. It is fuelling rent and house price inflation. It is robbing a generation of their ability to own their own home. It is creating unfairness.

And when people feel the world doesn’t work for them they become angry. The anger and frustration goes way beyond the thuggery we have witnessed this weekend.

Lets be frank their has always been plenty of angry men keen to have a scrap. We used to witness it every weekend after football matches.

Most people would not dream of venting their frustration in such a way. Indeed most people bear no resentment to the migrants themselves. What they resent is a world that doesn’t work for them. When they cant get to see their GP, or get their child into the school of their choice because there aren’t enough places to cater for this size of population.

Make no mistake, people are disappointed that politicians have failed to keep their promises on immigration. But instead of taking to the streets most have simply switched off.

There is a reason why Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a landslide election victory despite getting fewer votes than Jeremy Corbyn in 2019.

More and more people are choosing to stay at home because they have come to a view that voting makes no difference and we cant believe a word they say.

And in my view it is this sentiment which risks damaging Britain more than the mindless hooliganism of far right thugs.

This is a nettle that must be grasped. Immigration must be brought under control. It is a matter of public confidence in our democracy that it is.