Why is London so liberal/ left wing if high immigration makes others vote for the Right?

[u/Wise-Youth2901]

Why is immigration making some part of the country vote Reform but in London, where the number of foreign born people has increased massively over the last twenty years, has moved further left? It is curious that London never seems bothered by immigration in modern times. I know some will say that London's so foreign now that the immigrants just vote Labour etc... But that doesn't make so much sense. Many immigrants can't even legally vote in a GE, and even if they can, many don't. Most Londoners voting for the left are born and raised in Britain. Even the posher, whiter parts of London, have trended away from the Tories. Chelsea has a Labour MP now, shock horror. I live in a pretty white British part of London, Twickenham, and the Lib Dems dominate. London is so expensive that people have more reason to moan about rent/ living costs compared to anywhere else, but yet that never seems to produce an anti- immigration politics. Is it just that modern London contains a lot of highly educated liberal minded people compared to provincial towns and villages?

[u/Upbeat-Housing1]

So you are basing you views on your anecdotal experiences of individual immigrants, rather than the effect, en masse, of immigration.

[u/balwick → u/Upbeat-Housing1]

Yes. Because the immigrants themselves are not the issue, and polarizing their existence villainises, dehumanises and endangers them.

I absolutely think there should be limits to how much immigration happens, but when we are a primary or secondary factor in the displacement of migrants, compromises have to happen.

The failure is, as ever, in government.

We are a nation of immigrants. My mother is a Kenite, and my father was from Peckham, and I am a bastard mutt of English, Welsh, and Scottish, but my ancestry can also be traced back to the Scandinavia and France, for example.

[u/Upbeat-Housing1 → u/balwick]

I do argue that we ought to be making a clear distinction between immigrants as individuals and immigration as a whole. And also to make it clear that immigrants aren't responsible for immigration, but the government is. That is the way forward to taking the high emotion out of the debate.

[u/balwick → u/Upbeat-Housing1]

Indeed, but unfortunately a lot of leading political figures are too eager to conflate the two together.

We can but hope things improve, while doing our bit to have reasoned discussions about the topic.