Europe is lurching right on immigration. Despite Farage and Sunak’s best efforts, Britain will not follow | Polly Toynbee

The ugly rhetoric of the Tories and Reform obscures a simple truth: most voters understand the need for foreign workers

There's turmoil in the EU as the far right advances. Macron risks all, trusting that people vote in protest for the remote EU parliament, but vote for real governments at home. After all, we sent Nigel Farage to fart rude taunts and abuse at MEPs for 20 years until Brexit, and he got nowhere much in the UK.

But Britain, with a resurgent Labour party set to sweep in, is on a reverse path. Our own hard-right wing, in the form of Farage's Reform party, may relegate the Conservatives to third place in votes, and the sideshow battles between the rump right will be a fascinating farrago. But the future is all with Labour and how it governs.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist