Labour's Lesson From Crewe By-Election

Harriet Harman was on the Today programme this morning to talk about the by-election defeat.

She was asked about the "crass language of authoritarianism", but she reiterated Labour's support for "tough immigration rules" and "biometric ID cards for foreign nationals."

Labour seems intent on moving the country towards harsher and harsher positions on immigration. This seems inane in an era where we will face tens of millions of climate change refugees over the next few years.

More broadly, Labour has set out positions (on ID cards, on 42-day detention, on trial by jury, on the criminalisation of youth) that move the mood of the country towards an anti-civil liberties point of view.

Labour has had 10 years to develop a new way of addressing youth involvement in crime (investing in communities, empowering youth), to develop a foreign policy so we don't need to worry about terrorism so much (42-day detention, ID cards).

Instead, they have retreated, arguably since Tony Blair was Shadow Home Secretary, and two boys in the Bootle Strand shopping centre in Liverpool took a toddler by the hand and led him away to his death. Labour thought that right-wing rhetoric was appropriate for moving the country towards social democracy.

They are finding out the hard way that, whilst the Tories are opposed to ID cards and the trial by jury changes, right-wing Labour rhetoric is paving the way for a right-wing Tory majority government.