Hello and welcome to the Red Box Politics Podcast on The Times I'm Matt Chorley.

Joining me this week Tim Bale, Professor of Politics from Queen Mary University London, Grant Tucker from the Times diary, but first this is

Times columnist Rachel Sylvester.

The Brexiteers whipped up fears on immigration during the referendum campaign, but they've gone

quiet on the issue since it's all about

regulatory alignment and the ECJ but the leave vote was won through a cultural

wall. The cabinet Brexiteers must explain to their voters that there are benefits to immigration

and why some free movement of people will be necessary for the sake of the economy and public services.

Wait a minute in a way this is the dog that hasn't bark or the dog whistle that hasn't bark

Is that what it hasn't whistled? Yes it has it the dog whistle that has a whistle.

Why do you think that is is it because public concern about it has gone down is it because it's a

difficult problem to

solve so politicians quite often stop talking about the thing that they don't

have already answered to I think it's the most difficult issue and the most potentially

dangerous one of the whole Brexit vote that they played on this populist

mood and they made promises which can't be delivered they gave the impression

that immigration would fall that you know that they gave a sense that actually the makeup of people's towns would change

and it's not going to and they don't quite know what to do about that and I think

actually probably the cabinet Brexit is in denial about what they did because about that

they did because the actual leading cabinet Brexit is in denial about what they did because the

actual leading cabinet ministers Michael Gove Boris Johnson David Davis

Liam Fox are all personally pro-immigration.

...