Modern governments are compelled to violently manipulate the working population. That's why, regardless of their political persuasion, a generation of Home Secretaries have tried to outbid their predecessors in obnoxious authoritarianism.
The only trouble is, at least for the Labour Party, is, as (former Home Secretary) David Blunkett has pointed out:
You can't outdo the Conservatives in relation to immigration.
When you play this game you aren't triangulating but helping to shift political discourse to the right.
If Blunkett is sincere there is a degree of irony involved. He was the Minister who introduced the Britishness Test (because nationality can not only be measured but sorted into increments). Blunkett also had the children of asylum seekers segregated from other children to prevent swamping; yes, your children are being swamped by a tiny minority and no it's not to facilitate divide and rule, preventing local families getting dangerously familiar with potential refugees... oh no. Blunkett also did his bit to improve race relations in Britain by describing the young men incarcerated for trying to stop violent nazis from rampaging through their neighbourhoods as whining maniacs.
Erstwhile war-supporters used to say things along the line of "it's all very well making these points with the benefit of hindsight". The obvious answer was that many of us seemed to have the benefit of foresight. If Blunkett knew all this before and during his career in government then he is a deeply cynical man. If he's only just realised this now he's merely a total and utter fool.