Migrant policy has to be fair – and firm
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph at the weekend, Sajid Javid observed that it could have been him or his parents caught up in the Windrush debacle. The son of a Pakistani-born bus driver, the new Home Secretary is better placed than most to understand the implications of his department’s bungled immigration policy for people who have lived here for decades, imagining that their British credentials were beyond challenge. By the same token, Mr Javid is also in a position to pursue a robust policy against illegal immigration without being accused of racism or hostility to lawfully settled foreign nationals.
It is important to emphasise that Amber Rudd did not resign because of the way the Home Office handled the Windrush generation issue, nor did she stand down because the Government is pursuing a tough policy against illegal immigration, which arguably it isn’t. The cause of her departure was that age-old guarantor of ministerial defenestration: misleading MPS.
What is important now is not to abandon the wider policy to atone for incompetence in the Windrush case. Maintaining proper immigration control is the proper function of any government. The problem is that the Home Office has been woefully bad at doing so. Mr Javid has said his first priority as Home Secretary is to ensure that no one who has been here for decades is threatened with removal and that anyone who has been is compensated. But his second must be to get a grip on the Home Office so that it is actually capable of presiding over an effective immigration policy.
Listening to Labour’s litany of complaints in recent days, you could be forgiven for thinking that mass deportations are taking place. In reality, the number of illegal immigrants removed from the UK has been falling and is, in any case, only a tiny proportion of the estimated number who are in the country unlawfully. Mr Javid said he wants to preside over a fair and decent immigration policy. But it must be a firm one, too.
The resignation of the fourth Cabinet minister in five months has left Theresa May looking politically vulnerable once more, though her fate is inextricably tied up with delivering Brexit. However, unless crucial departments like the Home Office do their jobs properly, what chance is there of operating credible frontier controls and workable citizenship policies after we leave the European Union?