You may not remember this, I might be remembering it wrong.
Tony Blair said he would restrict immigration. This was a promise he made to quieten things in the Labour heartlands, where this xenophobic stuff has been stirred up by people who should know better. I also know some immigration nuts who complain about this too.
Miliband's Labour said the same thing, even selling a mug saying they would restrict immigration.
We can't say whether or not Miliband would have done this or not.
But we do have a really good example of the New Labour project here.
Blair told comforting lies to the people he had disenfranchised to keep them on side, while he told a different set of lies elsewhere.
The exit vote is these people saying that they don't believe any party will actually address their concerns, at least in part.
Labour go way back playing xenophobic cards. I remember when I was a kid in the 70's seeing TV I didn't understand where white trade union officials were talking about differentials. Which used to be that skilled (usually) men were paid more than unskilled ones. In a modern workforce, built around flexibility, the concept is ridiculous.
In general the immigrants that came in during Windrush were unskilled when they arrived in the UK, so you can see where this is going. Defending the labour aristocracy against anything that might put pressure on their wages. Black folks are really easy to spot in that regard, and as they became more skilled the closed shop merchants started to get worried. But of course they never mention race out loud in public.
Labour was founded by the labour aristocracy and their chums in the middle class. You only have to look at their early history to see how they never attempted to rally the poorer sections and saw their mission as one of containing the dangerous and the ignorant, while maintaining their differentials. This is still part of their culture. Listen to the pronouncements of the folks on the right of the party, and the thought police laws they were so fond of passing, and you can see this tendency still alive in the here and now. There is a culture of do gooders doing people's thinking for them, and it's been there since the very beginning. Read some of Sydney Webb's racist speeches if you want an example of this.
Enfranchising the working class in England meant making sure everything happened in parliament and any dangerous radicalism was marginalised. The party was founded to make this happen.
What's needed is the supposed leadership of the working class taking a principled view on immigration and internationalism that they can explain and justify. Then getting agreement, or at least defusing it as a serious issue. But to do this, when most brits still have an unconscious empire loyalism branded in their heads by our awful education system, is very difficult. So the do gooders don't try. Instead they tell comforting lies and keep their principles hidden away (assuming they have any). So the folks who are really concerned about immigration and jobs for their kids are disenfranchised over and over again by the nice people who think their views are abhorrent.
This explains Gordon Brown's faux pas when he thought the microphone was off. Nice people like him nod and agree with the people who are scared and then do nothing to address the fear. They just chuck labels around and abdicate responsibility for what has happened and is happening. They blame the confused and lied to for being confused and having been lied to.
We have a situation where the immigration rules for the EU can't be changed and immigration from our former colonies keeps services like the NHS running. So the political class have to be honest about this, and say it can't be done. Also there is very little evidence that immigration has the negative effects claimed by the mass media. But no-one has the balls to challenge this narrative.
During the brexit debate I saw quite a lot of memes on Facebook challenging the prevailing view but I live in a bubble where folks think about these things and have a much more clear view than you get from our dreadful right wing press. I'm a member of Left Unity and we have a leaflet about immigration and migrant rights that explains our position very clearly. We aren't afraid to have the discussion, and challenge the lies being told. We also wouldn't insult your intelligence, or belittle your fears. But we have clearly articulated principles and will not tell comforting lies.
I think that Jeremy Corbyn won't tell comforting lies either, and that's what the old guard don't like. I personally can't join Labour after having spent a huge chunk of my life being disgusted with the way they've always run their foreign policy like the old empire loyalists they are. I hope JC will be different. He seems to have principles and a coherent view based on them.
Liars always get caught in the end, and pretending you can do people's thinking for them, ignoring their genuine fears, is pretty revolting.