The Windrush storm is passing but in its wake we aren’t seeing a nation bridging the vast discrepancy between propaganda and the reality of its immigration policy. The waves of anger still lap at Theresa May’s feet, but this rage is oddly disembodied, with the hostile environment still as popular as ever. Windrush was never going to reverberate enough with the public to turn around negative attitudes to immigration. So how do we reform perception, not just policy?

A YouGov poll demonstrated that attitudes on immigration have not changed following the Windrush revelations

The public support for Home Office victims and other signs of softening attitudes, such as the decline in Ukip’s influence, are not as heartening on second glance. Ukip’s electoral collapse is largely to the benefit of the Tories. The vote to leave the EU sucked the air out of a one-cause party and Ukip’s inertia fed the Tories’ momentum. Even at a time when an entire nation can get behind elderly and vulnerable victims who have been wrongfully deported or denied healthcare, it failed to translate to a more compassionate view at the ballot box. The Tories have successfully ignited Brexit’s anti-immigration fumes by sharpening the tone and rhetoric. A UN representative has even reported a Brexit-related growth in racism.

There seemed to be a return to the three mainstream parties, with the Liberal Democrats having a better-than-expected showing, but the collapse of the Ukip vote didn’t benefit them all equally. Labour did not make the kind of gains the Conservatives did. The Tories ended up in net terms not that far off from where they started, but the majority of the seats they lost were in immigration-tolerant areas such as London, and the majority of seats won were in areas where support for Brexit is high. Three of the four councils the party took control of (Basildon, Peterborough, Redditch) are places where the leave vote in 2016 was more than 60%. There is a sentiment grounded in closed borders, and withdrawal from the EU, that is impervious to the picture that has emerged of an overly harsh immigration system.

So it’s understandable, in fact to be expected, that the Conservative party should maintain its hardline immigration policies despite the sentimental impact of Windrush. It works. The party can stick to invoking the bogeyman of illegal immigration while in the same breath making out that the misfortunes to befall the Windrush victims were just the result of an overly enthusiastic implementation of the policy to identify “illegals”. We were just trying to do our job, you see; in fact, we did it too well.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘The hostile environment needs to be fought on the streets.’ Protesters in London on 5 May. Photograph: Matthew Chattle/Barcroft Images

At best, voters will discount Windrush, continuing to be motivated by immigration concerns at the ballot box, ones that they think only a government of the right can address. At worst, people will be angry about Windrush, but not vote against the Tories on that basis. A poll conducted at the end of last week actually showed a surge in support for the party among blue-collar workers. We are stuck.

A YouGov poll at the end of April also demonstrated that attitudes on immigration had not changed following the Windrush revelations. A majority of those polled said the government fumbled the issue, with 64% saying it was badly handled. Polling also found the overwhelming majority of British people accepted Windrush migrants had the right to stay in Britain. But the overall approach to migration – the same one that created these nightmarish “mistakes” – still has overwhelming public support. “In other words,” the report concluded, “just because the public think the government’s handling of the Windrush generation has been poor, it doesn’t follow that they have stopped supporting the policies that caused those difficulties.”

A strange duality in how many view immigration exists. As a whole, it is seen as a political issue, detrimental to the economy and a burden to the state. In the public mind there seems to be a sort of super-immigrant – who few can point to in real life – who is somehow in the country illegally but also able to secure benefits and NHS treatment. But anecdotally, there is a softer, more humane, attitude to most of those individuals who work and live here, one that could be summed up along the lines of: “Immigration is bad, but not you; you’re all right.” It is fairly common for those who hold strong anti-immigration views in general to not support them in detail. According to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, “Immigration is unpopular, with approximately three-quarters of the British public favouring reduced levels.” But “those living in a person’s own neighbourhood seem the most popular among the British public. In something of a paradox, while vast majorities view migration as harmful to Britain, few claim that their own neighbourhood is having problems due to migrants.”

‘Britain is my home’: how the hostile environment damage has spread Read more

The good news is that, despite this firewall between public sympathy towards the victims of immigration policy and the choices made at the ballot box, change has been possible, with significant reforms already under way – the government has finally ditched its policy of forcing NHS staff to share patient data with the Home Office. But as the window of attention begins to close and popular sentiment moves on, it is up to the Labour party to stop playing defensively on immigration and make a full-throated case that detoxifies the issue.

That may seem an unrealistic – and very long-term – plan, but the past few years have demonstrated that trying to outflank the right on immigration does not work. It alienates natural Labour voters, and cedes space to thuggish rhetoric. Despite the Windrush scandal, there is still no incentive for the Conservatives to change the hostile environment policy if it continues to play well during elections. It is an uncomfortable truth to confront, but the hostile environment needs to be fought on the streets, in the hearts and minds of British voters, not simply in battles with the government.

• Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist