The step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous.
Migrants are our neighbours, friends and family.
To suggest that Britain risks becoming “an island of strangers” because of immigration mimics the scaremongering of the far-right.
Blaming migrants for a housing crisis and failing public services lets the real culprits off the hook: landlordism, chronic underinvestment and deepening inequality.
Labour was elected to tackle those, not parrot Reform’s scapegoating, which will never improve people’s lives.
Other leftwingers have said similar things. This is from Apsana Begum, who was elected as a Labour MP but who is currently suspended over a rebel vote.
I’m proud to represent an East London constituency where diversity is a strength —where communities include migrants from all around the world.
We must end, not embolden, the hostile environment.
I will be voting against the Border Security, Asylum & Immigration Bill this week.
And this is from Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who was elected last year as an independent.
The problems in our society are not caused by migrants or refugees.
They are caused by an economic system rigged in favour of corporations and billionaires.
If the government wanted to improve people’s lives, it would tax the rich and build an economy that works for us all.
Keir Starmer talk about an “island of strangers”. He says MPs will remember the negative impact of Theresa May’s “citizens of nowhere” speech.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, says the government is trying to embed fairness into the immigration system.
an article for ConservativeHome, she says she has asked it to report to her by the end of June.
She also uses the article to denounce people writing off her party as “pound-shop commentators and weathervane pundits”. She says:
Of course, there are plenty of pound-shop commentators and weathervane pundits ready to write off the Conservative party.
But we’ve been here before, and we’ve always come back stronger. I still remember the bad set of local elections in May 2019, swiftly followed by the European elections later that month where we polled just under 9 per cent. It felt like our time in government was over. Yet Boris pulled out a historic majority that same year.
If we are to make this year the point from when we rise again, and the latest case study in the Conservative Party bouncing back from a historic low, then we need to forge a new determination in this time of adversity.
In making this argument, Badenoch seems to have forgotten that something important happened to her party between its defeat in the May 2019 local election and its general election victory seven months later; it replaced its leader.
Reform UK party voted against the government’s plans to give the authorities new powers to smash these gangs.3.58pm.) He said this was “shockingly divisive”.
Cooper said Starmer was making a point about integration, and the need for migrants to be able to speak English.
Later the Labour MP Cat Smith said some of her constituents had been upset by Starmer’s “island of strangers’” comment.
cut immigration by 300,000. Labour’s will only cut immigration by 100,000, he says. (See 10.09am.) So he asks Yvette Cooper to admit that her policies are only a third as effective as his.
“Nice try,” Cooper says in response. She says Cleverly was in the cabinet that allowed immigration to soar in the first place.
The Labour MP Florence Eshalomi, who represents Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, said she was proud to live in a diverse and vibrant community.
But she said migrants living in her constituency have been in touch today to asks if the decision to extend the amount if time people have to wait until they can get earned settlement and citizenship (see 3.15pm) would cover people already in the UK, or just new arrivals.
Cooper would not say. She just said further details of this plan would be set out later this year, and she said “there will be plenty of opportunity for people to comment on and consider the detail”.
Keir Starmer in the foreword saying visa applications are down 40% since the election. But Starmer does not acknowledge that this is a result of Tory policies, he says.Keir Starmer is genuinely committed to reducing immigration.
And he references some of the Starmer proposals in this letter (from 2020), that the Tory MP Nick Timothy reposted earlier today.
4.55pm), Cooper says the government will set out new guidelines “to prevent conclusion or perverse conclusions”.10.24am.)on social media.
Article 8 is a check on state power. A check on authoritarianism.
It’s a right the state can only override if it acts lawfully, necessarily, and proportionately.
Weakening it for migration cases is a Trojan horse – weakening protections for all of us. 1/2
Article 8 is the right UK citizens use to:
– Challenge the state when their children are taken into care
– Stop intrusive surveillance/unlawful data grabs
– Protect their homes from arbitrary searches
– Keep contact with loved ones in prison
– Defend the right to a private and family life
Water it down for “them” today, and it won’t be there for you tomorrow.
Source: theguardian.com
