‘Keir Starmer’s Government Is Now Even More Anti-Migrant Than Its Conservative Predecessors’

In a very practical sense this Labour Government has gone further in terms of its anti-immigration policies and rhetoric than almost any other government in decades.

Of course this is not to ignore the performative cruelty of the previous Conservative Government’s policies, such as removing people to Rwanda or placing people seeking asylum on the Bibby Stockholm.

Indeed, one of the first actions of this Government was to cancel the Rwanda plan, and that is indeed to be lauded, but since then they have pushed for, and built on, a far harsher immigration system, both for those here via regular routes and those who have entered via irregular means.

This week’s immigration White Paper is emblematic of a Government which sees migrants as disposable. That is setting aside any debate about the language used in the Prime Minister’s speech to announce it. Even the Conservatives never proposed such radical, and draconian measures on the lives of people living in this country.

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The shift from five years to ten years to receive indefinite leave to remain alone is guaranteed to force more people into destitution. People who have built lives and families here are now being told that they must wait a further five years than expected, with costs which can spiral into the tens of thousands of pounds.

Labour’s proposed Border, Security and Asylum Bill builds on, and expands, the criminalisation of those seeking asylum. While it does remove some previous policy items, including the Rwanda Safety Act, it does not make mention of ensuring that those who have been trafficked into the UK can receive protection, a right effectively removed for many in the Illegal Migration Act.

Through its proposals, which go further in areas than previous pieces of legislation, the bill could realistically open the door for almost anyone arriving via small boat to be convicted of a criminal offence and imprisoned.

Changing the “good character” clause for obtaining citizenship to any refugee, having had their application for asylum and waiting five years, risks undermining, and violating, key principles of international refugee law. It would act as a penalty based on manner of entry, violating Article 31 of the Refugee Convention, and Article 34, which confirms that States should “as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalization of refugees.” These will be matters decided in the courts, as many Conservative policies were, but the principle of denying citizenship still remains a step further than has previously been made.

Plans for “return hubs” in third countries would not mimic the Rwanda plan, as the individuals sent there would have already had a claim for asylum refused, but they would, nonetheless, leave people stranded in a strange country, at vast expense to the taxpayer, with no realistic hope of ever being able to put down routes and settle. A similar, albeit not exactly the same policy between Italy and Albania was found to be unlawful, yet, knowing this, the Government still pushes onwards with it.

In filming deportations this government also echoes the actions of Donald Trump’s administration in the United States, turning people’s misery and pain into a spectator sport to appease a minority of people.

This Government did not set the foundations for all of the anti-immigration attitudes and policies we see, but they have continued to build on that foundation to make things even worse for those who came to this country to build a life. They have now gone further than previous governments in making anti-immigration their cornerstone, and, as polling shows, this has only been to the detriment of public support for them. 

While the rhetoric may not be as continuously hostile as their Conservative predecessors, although many have and do question phrases within the Prime Minister’s speech this week, the message Labour is sending remains the same, that migrants are somehow second class and disposable. For all the talk of not denigrating migrants, this Government has pushed further onwards in seeing exactly that this will happen.

Labour has more than four years left in power, yet they seem determined to increase the salience of Reform’s stance, and demonise migrants at the same time, rather than building a positive image for the future, a future which includes migrants and recognises that they are part of our communities.