Culture war threatens our immigration system
Some Left-wing activists and even councils are flouting British law to stop ‘racist’ deportations
In the 1980s, Liverpool’s hard-left council defied the government, broke the law, and set an illegal budget. Today, Labour councils threaten the rule of law by blocking the removal of illegal immigrants from Britain. Last week, Lewisham’s mayor kicked out a Home Office official embedded with the council whose job it was to identify illegal immigrants. Southwark expelled their embedded official last year, and Haringey kicked out theirs the year before.
“Their job is to enforce governmentmade laws, not help people,” complained a Labour source. “It is not the responsibility of Labour councils to inform on vulnerable migrants when they come to us seeking shelter and support.”
Yes, you heard that right. It is not the job of Labour councils to uphold the law. Instead, the source said, councils should grant emergency funds to illegal immigrants without notifying the Home Office. The fact that this keeps illegal immigrants, and their children, in legal limbo, often at the mercy of organised criminals, does not matter. For the hard-left, the credo is clear: illegal immigration good, law enforcement bad.
After their victories in Lewisham, Southwark and Haringey, Left-wing activists are taking the battle elsewhere. They have submitted a motion to Labour’s London regional conference calling for Home Office officials to be expelled from all Labour councils. And matters will not rest there, because several Left-wing groups are leading the fight on this new front in Britain’s emerging culture war. Project 17, the charity that pressured Lewisham, Southwark and Haringey into their policies of non-compliance, is run by human rights lawyers and receives funds from international trusts that support pro-immigration causes. But they are far from alone.
In March 2017, 15 activists from an organisation called End Deportations used bolt cutters to break into Stansted Airport and lock themselves to an aeroplane due to return illegal immigrants to Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The activists’ convictions – for clear criminal offences – were described by Amnesty International as a “crushing blow for human rights in the UK”. The judge overseeing their case said they were motivated by “genuine reasons” and handed down suspended sentences and community punishments.
Last summer, a group called Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants pressured Virgin Atlantic to stop working with the Home Office to remove illegal immigrants. Then, the campaigners switched their attention to British Airways and Qatar Airways, who provide seats for immigration officers and deported criminals and illegal immigrants.
Not content with that campaign, David Lammy, the Labour MP, wants ministers to suspend chartered flights too. The loss of chartered flights or cooperation from commercial airliners would leave Britain unable to remove most illegal immigrants and foreign criminals. But that is what Lammy and these campaign groups want.
Labour has already promised policies that would make the enforcement of immigration law very difficult. It wants to let asylum seekers work, which would encourage more bogus applications. It wants to overturn the laws that prevent people from getting bank accounts and driving licences, renting houses and finding work while living here illegally. And they say they will end the “disastrous immigration detention system” for illegal immigrants.
Identifying and arresting illegal immigrants is difficult enough with Britain’s lightly regulated labour market, non-contributory welfare system and public services that are free at the point of use. Detaining and deporting them is harder still with asylum and human rights laws that give illegal immigrants countless opportunities to delay their removal. Detention and enforced removals are already down – the former by 41 per cent, the latter by 18 per cent – in the past year. And most removals, incidentally, are to majority-white countries: topping the list are Albania, Romania, Poland and Lithuania. But the Left’s latest campaign will make it even harder to do what the public expects and enforce the law.
That does not matter to a radicalised Left interested only in labelling Tories racist and fighting a bitter culture war. Last week, Lammy called the Prime Minister “a little England suburban xenophobe”. Never mind that as home secretary Theresa May radically reformed police stop-and-search powers and took unprecedented action on deaths in custody. Never mind that she brought forward the groundbreaking Modern Slavery Act. The insinuation was clear. She is a Tory who believes immigration must be controlled. She must, therefore, be racist. And so must millions of voters who agree with her. For that word, “suburban”, was as clear a dog whistle as any Lammy accuses others of blowing. Because what does he mean by “suburban” if not white people?
This is the grim reality of the culture war Labour are fighting. The law will give way to politics, and solidarity to division. Agree or disagree on immigration policy, but this is no way to debate the future of our country.