Labour has already made its first grievous error – and is playing a dangerous game
Tackling immigration should be one of Labour's biggest priorities but they've already made this one mistake, says Tim Newark.
Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to allow the processing of claims by up to 120,000 asylum seekers the last government said would never be allowed to stay will only encourage thousands more to risk the voyage across the Channel and make the traffickers even richer.
And it’s hardly “disrupting” the people-smuggling business model either, as promised by Labour before the election. Whereas the Conservatives had quite rightly said that those coming illegally to our country should not be given asylum, Ms Cooper is rewarding their lawbreaking by giving them exactly what they want.
The Refugee Council has said this could result in 70,000 migrants being given asylum, although Tories say this could be as high as 90,000. But every one of them will have jumped the queue into our country – forcing their way ahead of those who’ve patiently followed legal routes.
Labour promised to scrap the Rwanda scheme, calling it a “gimmick”, but they have replaced it with their own empty gesture, a supposedly beefed-up Border Security Command. Why this should be any more successful than what already exists in stopping the small boats is anybody’s guess.
The fundamental problem is that the UK exerts an enormous pull factor for illegal immigrants, the vast majority of whom are economic migrants rather than genuine refugees. Knowing the UK is a stickler for international law, they can play the legal system endlessly with very little chance of being sent home.
By not leaving the ECHR, the Conservative government made it clear they were not prepared do what was necessary to have them flown out to a third country to process claims. Now, the Labour government is putting up a massive “welcome” sign at Dover.
Even though it would probably have been undermined by foot-dragging civil servants and activist lawyers, at least the reality of the Rwanda scheme was beginning to filter through to the other side of the Channel. Now that threat is gone.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is nicknamed “the “friendly one” by hopeful itinerants. At least 2,258 illegal migrants have arrived on our shores since Labour took office three weeks ago and many more are due to make the journey. Kevin Saunders, who led Border Force teams in Calais, said: “The only deterrent on the table is gone.”
Having already spent an eyewatering £700million on the Rwanda scheme (though Tories claim the figure is closer to £300million), it would have made sense to try it out for the next few months at the very least. But Labour are so ideologically driven to oppose any Conservative solution that they prefer to waste that money – our money – and start from scratch with their own lessthan-effective plans.
Of course, Labour will be the eventual losers, as their opendoor approach to illegal immigration will turn voters against them and they will face a wipeout at the next election as bad as the one the Tories were dealt. More housing, more schools and more hospitals are only needed because of our rapidly growing population, fuelled by uncontrolled migration.
And as a recent report showed, it’s not as though these migrants are benefiting our economy. Instead, coming from mainly failed states, they are only employable in low-paid jobs and are frequently a net drain on our national resources. In fact, migrants from the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey are almost twice as likely to be economically inactive as someone born in the UK.
As former prime minister Tony Blair recently advised Sir Keir: “We need a plan to control immigration. We need a tough new approach to law and order.”
If not, he warned, voters will turn to populist parties such as Reform. It’s already happening across Europe. Voters are rightly fed up with governments too weak to control – or, actively encouraging – the enormous flows of illegal migrants across their borders.
It is the crucial issue of the 21st century and by potentially granting illegal migrants asylum, Yvette Cooper is playing a very dangerous game indeed.
The consequence will be to drive up the number of migrants willing to risk life and limb crossing from France, further enriching the criminal gangs that feed off them. Putting out the right implacable message is at the heart of this challenge and Labour is already failing to do that.
Other European countries, including Denmark and Austria, had been looking to the UK to implement the Rwanda scheme. Now that leadership is gone.
