IMMIGRATION is not naturally at the top of most people’s concerns, despite the persistent efforts of numerous British politicians to push it there.

Yet we are now in a period when many of those politicians talk of little else. Worse, we have entered a period in which reality has become inverted, and it is claimed there is no racism which affects black people, whereas the white population is widely discriminated against, especially in the justice system, and is even in danger of “replacement.”

Currently, the leading political parties offer no grounds for optimism about their plans for the economy and living standards. The void is being filled by party leadership’s squabbling over who can be the most hostile to migrants and asylum-seekers. It has now become a basic rule of British politics that the more a politician wants to talk about migration, the less they have to offer the population.

Reform UK’s gains at the May elections, the ongoing campaign about “stopping the boats/smashing the gangs” and the latest immigration white paper fit entirely into this pattern.

In a certain sense, there is nothing new about this. When the Commonwealth and Immigration Acts of 1962 and especially 1968 were introduced, they were the first clear signs that the post-war economic boom was coming to an end — and who was going to be scapegoated for it.

What is new is the dire state of the economy, the prolonged erosion of living standards and the widespread expectation that this is the new norm. This is why the volume and frequency of attacks on migrants is being continually dialled higher.

The obsession with immigration does not spring from the population itself, despite the claims of innocence by leading politicians. YouGov has polled key voter concerns ever since 2011. Over that time, health and the economy are almost always the main concerns.

The exception was in the 12 months leading up to the Brexit referendum. There can be no clearer example of how the panic over migration is a politically manufactured construction, the inputs coming from what used to be called Fleet Street, the finished article produced in Westminster.

Even now, despite all the permanent campaigning, immigration still lags behind the economy as the main issue for voters’ concerns. The same pattern was true in the polling following the May elections, where repeatedly, the economy, the cost of living and health were more important to voters than immigration.

Yet we know that Reform UK were the big winners from those elections. Obviously, my attention is more on the Labour Party, but we made the same fundamental error as the Tories, echoing Reform UK on the lesser concern of immigration, while having nothing positive to say about the primary issues already outlined, the economy, the cost of living and health.

The latest immigration Bill repeats this error. Underlying it is the false implication that anyone in this country will be better off by limiting immigration numbers. It is also clear the government has no intention of fundamentally altering the current system.

This is a points-based immigration system introduced by Boris Johnson after Brexit. Johnson may not have known much about anything he enacted in his time in public office, but his officials certainly did. Any points-based system is a permissive system, designed to attract as many people as possible within certain criteria, as some of us pointed out at the time.

The difference between this system and freedom of movement is not about numbers at all. Net migration has surged since Brexit. It is about rights, with the newer immigrants deprived of all citizens’ rights, and rights as workers, too. The aim has been to establish a weaker, more pliant workforce and ultimately a lower-paid one too, although these have been difficult to achieve in practice.

The government asks us to believe that there will be about 100,000 fewer immigrants after the Bill. So, previously, there were three quarters of a million net migrants, allegedly causing all sorts of social and economic ills. Yet reducing them by a fraction will alleviate all this.

This sort of politics cannot be taken seriously.

The Bill will not meaningfully affect immigration numbers, and the misconceived Tory system will remain in place, denying even more rights. What we are left with is a series of measures that vary between nasty and disgraceful, aimed at the migrants themselves.

And the permanent campaign against them is not only maintained but deepened when speaking of “an island of strangers.” There should be no doubt: although less widely reported, that Starmer speech has caused a degree of hostility among Labour MPs comparable to the disgraceful attacks on welfare.

These fictions about immigration and racism generally should be consigned to the dustbin. Any unifying policy must begin with confronting the real discrimination that exists in society. Simultaneously, it is the only way to defeat Reform UK, which blames all society’s ills on migrant communities, however long-established they are.

Discrimination exists in every part of our society. Governments regularly commission reports into the causes of major crises, from Scarman to Casey and many others besides. Repeatedly, the reports point to the existence of institutional racism and routinely their recommendations are ignored.

Any objective policymaking would begin with these identified areas of discrimination in all major aspects of social life. These include policing and the criminal justice system, all levels of education, in health and housing and in employment and pay.

These are key threads of the pattern of discrimination and racism experienced by ethnic minorities in this country, primarily but not exclusively black people (on many measures Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are even worse off).

Tackling these inequalities and this discrimination is the right thing to do. But many colleagues seem to believe that this leaves us open to the ridiculous charges of the racists, in their fantasy where they are the victims.

Bring it on. We cannot defeat the racists by pussyfooting with their ideas or conceding to them. Their utterly false claims are being made anyway, and an anti-racist intervention gives us the opportunity to explain the real position, the real causes of society’s ills and their role in covering that up.

We can defeat the racists with honesty, with justice and with unity.

Diane Abbott is Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.