Abbott fails NINE times to set out Labour policy on illegals
DIANE Abbott refused nine times yesterday to say what Labour’s policy was on dealing with illegal immigrants.
The Shadow Home Secretary was unable to answer basic questions on the issue. She said she did not want an amnesty for the one million-plus illegal immigrants estimated to be here – but also rejected kicking them all out.
Interviewed on ITV1’s Good Morning Britain show, Miss Abbott declined to spell out whether she would take action to expel those with no right to be in Britain.
Pressed by host Piers Morgan, she refused nine times to explain exactly what her solution would be if she got into power.
Critics claimed her interview was fresh evidence that a Labour government would fail to crack down on those living unlawfully in Britain – making the country more attractive to people who want to enter illegally.
In October last year, a former Home Office chief admitted Britain was hosting more than one million illegal immigrants.
They are a mixture of people who sneaked in in the back of lorries, migrants who arrived on visas but never went home, foreign criminals never booted out and failed asylum seekers who have avoided deportation.
Many are earning money by working in the black market but not paying taxes, while adding to the burden on public services such as hospitals and schools.
Miss Abbott said Theresa May and Amber Rudd, who lost her job as Home Secretary over the issue, had caused the Windrush crisis by implementing ‘hostile’ measures to tackle illegal immigration. And she dismissed calls for an amnesty, as suggested by Boris Johnson. But she said it was ‘not Labour’s position’ that anyone in Britain unlawfully should be deported.
Instead she insisted she was working on a policy that would make the handling of immigration by a ‘not fit for purpose’ Home Office much ‘fairer and more efficient’.
In the interview, Mr Morgan asked: ‘I can’t work out what your view is. What is Labour’s policy? Do you think they should be removed from the country, or should they be allowed to stay here? It’s not a difficult question.’ Dodging the question, Miss Abbott said: ‘We are working on immigration policy, obviously. Post Brexit, everybody’s got to consider the immigration policy.
‘But the main plank of what we want to do is to have a much fairer system. Fair rules and reasonable management of migration.’
She then challenged the line of questioning, saying: ‘All I can say to you Piers is that for anybody watching, the question this morning is why you don’t want to talk about the immediate plight of the Windrush generation.’
The former Daily Mirror editor accused of her of failing to give ‘a straight factual answer to this fundamental question’.
The interview will revive memories of Miss Abbott’s slip-up over Labour’s police policy during the election campaign last May.
Then she was unable to answer basic questions about the cost of hiring 10,000 officers.
She suggested the plan would cost just £300,000 – meaning each officer would be paid just £30. She then suggested it would cost £80million, or £8,000 per officer.
Rehman Chishti, a Conservative member of the Commons’ home affairs committee, said: ‘The Shadow Home Secretary refused nine times to lay out exactly what her policy on illegal immigration would be if Labour got into power.
‘Labour have no interest in controlling our borders and instead turn their nose up at people who want to see immigration levels controlled.’
Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of the Migrationwatch think-tank, said: ‘It is therefore astonishing that the Shadow Home Secretary is incapable of setting out Labour’s policy.’