You can learn a great deal about a government by who it chooses to fight. In the 16 months since this shambolic, soulless rabble were handed power by Tory collapse, they have trained their fire on pensioners and disabled people. Their latest target: refugees fleeing violence and persecution.

In time-honoured fashion, a desperately unpopular government lacking answers to the country’s multiplying problems opts to kick asylum seekers. No 10 is plainly in a panic. Barely one in 10 voters are satisfied with its performance – a figure comparable to the proportion of the public who believe the moon landings were staged.

The government has no moral compass, but some of its remaining supporters do. Where, exactly, is their red line? They surely did not vote for Labour expecting a refugee policy so extreme that one Reform MP offered the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, an application form to switch parties. Nor did they imagine their vote would help produce an immigration stance applauded by Tommy Robinson.

No wonder Reform spots a potential recruit in Mahmood. She’s willing to spout the most deceitful claims about vulnerable people. “We have become the destination of choice in Europe,” she claims, “clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be........

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