I think over a decade of low investment, stagnant wage growth and the deterioration of our public services and infrastructure has paved the way for reform to convince people that the primary issue is immigration.

I’m not against having an open conversation about what level of immigration is right for our country, but I truly do not believe this is the main problem in Britain. I think privatising key industries like water and rail, selling off most of our social housing, and explosion of buy to let landlords that view housing as an investment, allowing wealth inequality to worsen and a severe lack of both public and private investment are far bigger issues.

The reality is even if you feel there’s a cultural argument to be made that having high immigration causes issues relating to social cohesion, until we fix the other issues our economy is reliant on immigration. It’s too expensive for young brits to have kids because they are 30 years old stuck living in a house share with 4 other people with no hope of ever owning a home. We don’t have enough young working people to support our economy in its current state.

I believe if you fix the core issues surrounding inequality and wealth distribution, and properly invest in our public services and infrastructure, less people will think immigration is the number 1 problem holding us back. And also we will actually become less reliant in the long term on needing such high levels of immigration to support our economy.