Row over fund for Muslim women
PM accused of ‘sloppy approach’
DAVID Cameron has been accused of a “lazy and misguided” approach after warning that Muslim women who failed to improve their English language skills could be deported as part of a drive to build community integration and counter extremism.
But it emerged that Muslim women in Scotland will not benefit from a forthcoming £20 million fund designed to help improve the English of foreign spouses, who have settled in the UK, and to help them integrate into British society, so avoiding the threat of deportation.
No 10 confirmed that the £20m fund was directed only at helping communities in England but emphasised how visa requirements, including having a required standard of English, applied across the UK.
Asked if it was fair spouses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should face a disadvantage to their counterparts in England, the Prime Minister’s spokesman stressed the issue was devolved but it was “entirely up to the Scottish and Welsh governments should they wish to take similar action”.
He explained that the rules applying to spousal visas were changing with the introduction of a two-and-a-half-year point, where spouses would be expected to achieve an A2 “elementary” standard; in the last parliament a fiveyear B1 level was introduced.
Asked if the SNP Government would introduce a similar education fund, a spokesman stressed how Scotland had expertise in welcoming migrants and delivering English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classes and was supported by two key strategies that sought to integrate refugees and migrants into Scottish life so they could contribute socially and economically.
“Given these strategies, we welcome the Prime Minister’s recognition of the importance of ESOL and the additional funding for English language provision,” he added.
Earlier, the PM warned that not speaking the English language adequately could make people “more susceptible” to the recruitment messages of groups like the so-called Islamic State although he stressed that there was no “causal link”.
The £20m language fund was being set up to help end what he described as the “passive tolerance” of separate communities, which left many Muslim women facing discrimination and social isolation. He noted how evidence pointed to 40,000 women in Britain not speaking any English at all and 190,000 having very poor English.
During a visit to a mosque in Leeds, Mr Cameron said people who came to Britain had rights and responsibilities; chief among the latter “should be obligations to learn English because then you can integrate, you can take advantage of the opportunities here and you can help us to build the strong country that we want”.
Asked about the threat of deportation to spouses, the PM replied: “After two-and-a-half years, halfway through the programme of getting settlement, they should be improving their English, and if they don’t do that, then they can’t be guaranteed to be able to go to the full stage and retain their visa.”
Lady Warsi, the former Tory chairwoman who was the first female Muslim Cabinet minister, welcomed the new money for language teaching but said it was “lazy and sloppy when we start making policies based on stereo-