The Beckett Report, commissioned to understand why Labour lost the 2015 general election, has not yet been made public, but its principal findings were recently leaked to the BBC.

In a completely unsurprising turn of events, the reasons are the economy, immigration, welfare, weak leadership, and the SNP.

There is one topic there which pretty much the entire party, from the Corbynites to the Blairites, would rather just sweep under the carpet: immigration. Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband didn’t know what to say about this, realising that it was a weak point for the party. Feeling that Labour values were out of step with the country, neither leader ever got onto the front foot on the subject. So, I put a question out on to Twitter; what should Labour say and do on this?

Before I start, let’s define our terms, as all too often, various different issues become elided. I’m not talking about refugees here. For refugees, the solution should be Europe-wide, and all countries should play their part to look after displaced people. We are a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but more importantly, these are human beings fleeing war zones, and they deserve our protection.

I’m also not talking about illegal immigration; on this, we need to be as strong on this as we can. We need to have secure borders and know who is coming in to our country, both because there are people in the world who seek to do us harm, and also to avoid the kind of tragedies seen in Morecambe Bay in 2004.

So, I asked for some ideas about how Labour should approach the thorny problem of legal immigration. Broadly, the suggestions fall in to one of two categories; that of presentation, and that of policy.

Presentation

A few people conceded that immigration will likely never be Labour’s strong suit, but to try and talk tough on the issue just comes across as inauthentic and counter-productive; voters motivated by concerns on immigration aren’t going to flock to Labour, no matter how “tough” we claim to be, whereas such talk will alienate other potential voters. Nobody liked Ed’s mug. Nobody.

Some felt that we need to consider the language we use, to be more empathic, to listen to and understand people’s concerns. We should stop saying that concerns about immigration are driven by bigotry; this only pushes away voters who may in reality be worried about local services and wages coming under pressure. We should focus relentlessly on job creation, and talk about this in parallel with immigration, to reduce “they’re taking all our jobs” type sentiment.

Finally, on presentation, we should be authentic, say what we believe and believe what we say. Be brave and make a positive case for immigration, including the economic benefits. Talk of 25,000 families coming to the country rather than 100,000 immigrants, and avoid dehumanising language. If we vote to remain in the EU, the country will have voted to retain freedom of movement, and we can present this as a positive thing; EU migrants tend to be young, healthy, and net contributors to the exchequer.

But, whatever we argue, we need a strong leader who is a willing advocate, rather than a Brown/Miliband type who would rather talk about something else.

Policies

There were a fair few policy suggestions. In a broad sense, we should aim to reduce the issues associated with an increase in population, namely pressure on services; we, in government, could address this, by making sure we build houses and provide more schools, hospitals and jobs in areas that need it. These are levers that we could pull that may help.

More specifically, I received the following proposals:

No impossible promises; in particular, no stupid pledges on numbers

Restrict benefits for the first few years of residency

A points-based immigration system for non-EU migrants. This already exists, and was introduced by Gordon Brown in 2008, we can use this to address skills shortages

A probationary period prior to citizenship, whereby if a new immigrant committed a serious crime, they could be deported

Close the Yarl’s Wood detention centre, due to the horrific stories emanating from there.

So, there you have it. Some ideas on how Labour can position itself on immigration.

Understand people’s concerns around immigration, work on policies that will address these, make people feel supported and listened to, and learn how to communicate with the electorate much, much better.

This politics stuff is easy.

With thanks to @elliotbidgood, @dfosterevans, @dem_tilly, @georgeaylett, @jacob4mk, @daniel_sugerman, @cothamboy54, @coolestcomrade, @dijdowell, @misslilysummers, @worralljack, @dannyjohnri