Seminar: For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The UK Conservative Party, Brexit, and the electoral gain/policy coherence/organizational integrity trade-off on immigration.

While Europe’s so-called migration crisis is of fairly recent origin, some of the continent’s centre-right parties have been politicising immigration for as long as anyone can remember. But that politicisation can come with costs attached – both for the organisation and for those who lead it or want to lead it, with both sets of politicians doing their best (and doing a great deal) to determine the line taken on the issue. The politicisation of immigration for electoral and personal advantage can make for incoherent and counterproductive public policy. It can also lead centre-right parties, when they are in opposition, into making promises to restrict immigration which, when they are in government, they find it difficult to keep, thereby raising the salience of the issue and then threatening their ownership of it – often to the advantage of far-right competitors. Attempts to hold on to, or to regain, that ownership can then create a vicious cycle, driving policy in an ever more unrealistic direction and creating serious internal instability. The UK Conservative Party’s experience is a case in point.