A Labor MP has demanded a "reset" in the way politicians discuss immigration, claiming that the recent, "extremely dangerous," tone of the discussion has dehumanized immigrants and alienated people.During an Edinburgh Fringe debate on Sunday, Michael Shanks stated that the election campaign's "rhetoric about Rwanda and the small boats" had turned immigration into a "vortex issue." He said at the Iain Dale All Talk event that actual issues like unemployment and waiting lists for the NHS were then attributed to immigration.

He said this was a problem because misleading voters as to the causes of problems they faced, while at the same time not proposing viable solutions, had “fuelled” peoples’ sense of disillusionment with politics, leading many to decide not to vote at all.

“The narrative about immigration has become really dangerous, and it has fuelled a lot of this,” he said.He added: “I think we need a reset in some of that language that we use as a Government, we need to stop the kind of dehumanising of people that come to this country and contribute to the economy.”

He was at the same time keen to distinguish “legitimate concerns” by people who felt “left behind” from the “mindless” criminal behaviour seen during recent disorder in towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland, which he said could not be justified.The issue of trust in politics was a persistent theme in the debate, with host Matthew Standen asking panellists about the current electoral system, the role of social media, and the issue of Scottish independence.

Mr Slater was also asked whether Labour had delivered on its change agenda in its first five weeks in power.Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine was also asked about electoral reform, and said that her party would still push for a change to the current First Past the Post system despite returning 72 MPs in the last election on a smaller vote share than Reform, who only won five seats.

“Just because we did well this time doesn’t mean that we don’t think the electoral system has to change,” she said, adding that the country should adopt a proportional representation voting system.

When it was pointed out that this would have meant Reform would have won many more seats, she said: “You don’t make the electoral system to suit what ideology you don’t like, or what ideology you do like. You have a fair electoral system.