Keir Starmer's Reform-Lite Strategy Reaches Breaking Point
The Government's attempt to mimic the anti-migrant, anti-refugee politics of Nigel Farage is a recipe for moral degradation and defeat
Henry Ford once remarked that his customers could have any colour car they liked, as long as it was black.
A similar choice is currently being presented by UK political parties as they each compete with each other to be as hostile as they possibly can to anyone wishing to come to this country.
The news that the Home Office has issued new guidance, all but forbidding any refugee who arrives in the UK via a “dangerous” route from ever being granted citizenship, is just the latest depressing example of this trend.
The guidance, which is an even more restrictive version of guidelines issued to enforce the Conservative Government’s unlawful Rwanda scheme, is also a potential breach of the UN Refugee Convention.
Under the convention, which the UK helped to found, states must not penalise anyone seeking asylum, even if they do so by entering the country illegally.
The new guidance allows itself some wriggle room, by saying that those arriving “illegally” will only “normally” be refused citizenship.
However, the Home Office has already made it clear how they intend it to be followed, saying in a statement that “This guidance further strengthens measures to make it clear that anyone who enters the UK illegally, including small boat arrivals, faces having a British citizenship application refused.”
“Home Office insiders” reiterated this to The Guardian, telling the paper that “the guidance rules were tightened so that the Government would replace the ban that was imposed by the cancelled Illegal Migration Act.”
In other words, this is intended as a like-for-like replacement of the rules enabling the immoral and unlawful Rwanda scheme.
The change comes as Keir Starmer’s Government ramps up its attempts to mimic the anti-migrant politics of Nigel Farage’s Reform party.
Earlier this week the Home Office sent out dehumanising videos of migrants being rounded up by immigration officers.
At the same time, the Labour party has published adverts on social media boasting about their record of deporting “illegal” migrants, alongside a ‘Breaking Point’ style picture of a queue of silhouetted migrants.
Other adverts put out by Labour party accounts, include this picture, supposedly of a handcuffed ‘illegal migrant’, which promotes and links to an article on the anti-migrant news channel GB News.
The direction of travel is clear. Faced with opinion polls showing Reform level, or ahead of Labour, Keir Starmer is engaging in an obvious attempt to outdo Farage’s party at its own game.
That this is a strategy doomed for failure should go without saying. As the Conservative party showed when they attempted the same strategy while in government, all this achieves is to raise the salience of immigration as an issue on which Farage and his party can, and will always, go further.
It also creates a situation in which all three parties are engaged in a perilous contest to make Britain as hostile an environment as possible for anyone not born in the UK.
We are already seeing this play out. The Home Office’s new guidance banning anyone arriving via a “dangerous” route from ever claiming asylum goes even further than the time-limited ban imposed by the Conservatives.
Similarly, Kemi Badenoch’s proposals to make people wait 15 years before claiming citizenship, while banning anyone who claims benefits during that period from ever doing so, is another attempt to ramp up the anti-migrant, anti-refugee contest between political parties in the UK.
The problem with starting such an arms race is that it can only end in one place, as it already has in the United States, with demands for mass deportations and much more.
While we are still some way off of that in the UK, it is still a highly dangerous game being played by the current Government.
Yet as well as being politically stupid, it is also morally reprehensible.
As a descendant of a Polish refugee who took his own very “dangerous journey” in order to arrive in the UK, this latest attempt by Keir Starmer’s Government to engage in the anti-migrant, anti-refugee politics of Nigel Farage, is a deeply alarming one.
I believe Starmer is making a huge mistake by following the hostile environment of the Tories’ making. People might care about immigration but we care more about getting a GP appointment, our bin collections, health and social care and robust public services. My case in point is that I sent off the application for renewal of my PIP in August last year. I phoned the DWP to ask how it was progressing as I hadn’t heard anything from them in six months. The chap I spoke to was very friendly and polite but he informed me that my application hadn’t even been looked at yet. On Monday I received a letter saying that due to the delay, my PIP has been automatically extended for a year. I mean, I’m not going to argue with that but the machines of government are not working and this is more likely to push voters towards Reform because neither Labour nor Conservatives are delivering what people so desperately need.
Also, having just watched a few minutes of PMQs, it is chilling how badly people are being treated. My soon-to-be daughter in law came here via the Ukraine scheme and has made a life here with my son. She works so hard and pays her taxes. If everyone coming to this country could work, we’d all be better off. I was also horrified at the film of people being deported. Haven’t we had enough of performative cruelty?
Lovely photo of your Grandad, Adam. I’m glad he made it here and was welcomed.
There was a study done recently by Chris Hanretty at the Royal Holloway University that showed Keir Starmer is further to the right than almost all his Labour MPs scoring 48. Ed Davey of the Lib Dem’s scored 37. Left being lower. Reform and Suella Braverman scored 95.
In the past if an MP’s political convictions changed they’d defect to another party. Not now. Instead, he’s purged the left and is now trying to appeal to Tory voters AND using Reform tactics.
I voted Remain I voted tactically I tried to make excuses for Starmer because HOPE but that’s it. I’m a natural Left Winger.
I think his strategy is, the Left hate Tories ( after the last 14 years who can blame them) so they won’t vote for Reform or Tories so he’s now ignoring the entire left and is pitching his camp in Reform territory as they’re ahead of us now. No matter about the policies, ethical considerations, values. This will backfire. All the political parties with the exceptions of the Greens and LibDems are now lurching to the right. It’s very bad for democracy. Starmer is simply not behaving like a centrist and definitely not a Left wing party. And it’s absolute nonsense to suggest that if anyone can’t stand his politics now it’s because they’re hard-left. He’s not centre-left he’s centre-right or Blue Labour and that’s being generous. Labour can and should be a broad church. I can’t even call KS a progressive Tory now. Especially not after the AI summit. I live in what is now a LibDem seat now previously Tory. I will definitely vote LibDem. Especially now they’re one of the most left-wing parties on offer!