Keir Starmer is facing another major challenge to his authority as angry Labour MPs vowed to force changes to new hardline migration measures that would bring an escalation in the deportations of children and families.<\/p>\n
The policies \u2013 which include the possibility of confiscating assets from asylum seekers to contribute to costs \u2013 have caused significant divisions inside the party, with some MPs accusing their colleagues of not taking seriously public anger about illegal migration and asylum.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives have said they could support the government to pass the tough new laws in the event of a major Labour<\/a> rebellion.<\/p>\n The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has outlined a number of radical measures<\/a>, including how the government will attempt to change the way the European convention on human rights (ECHR) is interpreted by UK judges in an attempt to stop asylum seekers using their rights to a family life to avoid deportation.<\/p>\n Policies include consulting on enforcing the removal of families, including children, who have been refused the right to settle in the UK and have refused payments encouraging them to leave.<\/p>\n Graphic showing the proportion of immigrants to the UK who are asylum seekers <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe will launch a consultation on the process for enforcing the removal of families, including children,\u201d a policy document released on Monday said.<\/p>\n Starmer defended the government\u2019s asylum plans, which have been met with alarm by many Labour MPs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe inherited a broken asylum system just as we inherited a broken economy, broken public services, a broken NHS. So we have got to pick it up and fix it,\u201d he told the Daily Mirror.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to make sure there\u2019s a consensus on this, that people have confidence in our asylum system, and the truth is that we need to stop people arriving who shouldn\u2019t be here, and we need to return those who are found not to be genuine refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n At least 20 MPs have publicly expressed concern about the policies including the Folkestone MP and former human rights barrister, Tony Vaughan, the select committee chair Sarah Owen and 2024 intake MPs including Simon Opher, Abitsam Mohamed and Neil Duncan-Jordan.<\/p>\n The chair of the housing and communities select committee, Florence Eshalomi, asked Mahmood in the Commons if she was certain there would not be \u201cunintended consequences\u201d from the policies.<\/p>\n Speaking in the Commons, Mahmood rebuked MPs for suggesting she was using divisive language. She mentioned the crude racial slur she said was \u201cregularly\u201d used against her by people telling her to \u201cgo back home\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI know through my own experience and the experience of my constituents just how divisive asylum has become in our country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A government source said there would be a \u201chuge amount of engagement\u201d with worried Labour MPs and stressed there would be no deportations of unaccompanied children.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crisis at our borders is an existential issue for mainstream parties. If we don\u2019t solve the crisis at our border, dark forces will follow,\u201d they said. \u201cPolitics is about making arguments for things you think are right. That is what the home secretary is doing today.\u201d<\/p>\n But MPs said there were in particular widespread concerns about \u201cmorally bankrupt\u201d moves to ramp up the deportation of families \u2013 which in practice would mean increased detention of children before removal.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t fight an election as a Labour MP to bundle distressed children on to deportation flights,\u201d one MP said. Another MP in a Green-facing seat said they were facing an enormous backlash on social media. \u201cIt\u2019s all terrible. Straight out of the far-right playbook. Lots of colleagues feel the same,\u201d said a third.<\/p>\n Opher said the government \u201cshould stop the boats because it\u2019s dangerous, and we should stop the scapegoating of immigrants because it\u2019s wrong and cruel \u2026 Measures that create bureaucracy and insecurity do not offer clarity or strengthen control \u2013 they cost money, waste time and weaken the system.\u201d<\/p>\n Owen, one of the key organisers against the government\u2019s welfare cuts, said: \u201cA strong immigration system doesn\u2019t need to be a cruel one. It shouldn\u2019t need saying \u2013 but refugees and asylum seekers are real people, fleeing war and persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n Duncan-Jordan said: \u201cMy taxi driver this morning told me that after 20 years living in this country he no longer felt welcome, despite paying his taxes and making a contribution to the local community.<\/p>\n \u201cBritish values extend beyond running a raffle or cutting the half-time orange. We are compassionate, tolerant and generous. Kicking out recognised asylum seekers doesn\u2019t speak to any of our values. It hardens us as a nation and portrays Britain as a country like its weather \u2013 cold and uninviting.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Several Labour aides also expressed their own discomfort and expressed scepticism that the government would be able to pass the proposals without a climbdown on some measures, including the seizures of assets and the rights of refugee families to reach permanent settlement sooner than the proposed 20 years.<\/p>\n The government has already been forced to clarify that it did not intend to proactively seize jewellery from refugees.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what the PLP [parliamentary Labour party] will try and do first is seek to dilute these proposals,\u201d one said. Another MP said they saw it as an \u201copening offer \u2026 I\u2019m sure that they will want to try and hear concerns because we know what happens when they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n One MP in a marginal seat said they were particularly disturbed by the rhetoric that Britain is the \u201cdestination of choice\u201d for refugees, which they said was straightforwardly untrue given the UK was the 14th most popular in the recent data.<\/p>\n But another MP said they did not think it would mean immediate rebellions or resignations: \u201cWe want to read the proposals and then hear from other interested parties and get expert advice.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is what happened with welfare and then the picture became clearer. No one doubts that there is a necessity to tackle illegal immigration but there are parts of this that do not strike me as an obvious deterrent and which will extend people\u2019s suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n However, a significant number of MPs said they were convinced of the need to undertake \u201cthe unthinkable\u201d when it came to the asylum system, given the threat of Reform and the even more draconian measures that could come under a Nigel Farage government.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople need to get real,\u201d one minister said. \u201cThe public are moving a lot faster than colleagues on this because they recognise the stereotype of the deserving refugee has changed dramatically over the last decade because of the scale of people on the move.\u201d<\/p>\n Refugee status will be made temporary and reviewed every 30 months, the Home Office\u2019s asylum policy document reads.<\/p>\n The government also plans to weaken asylum seekers\u2019 rights under article 8 of the ECHR, which provides for the \u201cright to respect for family and private life\u201d.<\/p>\n The policy document said this was being used by illegal migrants to \u201cstop\u201d their removal. It proposes \u201cstrengthening\u201d the public interest in interfering with article 8 and limiting it to \u201cimmediate family\u201d.<\/p>\n The UK will also lobby to \u201cevolve\u201d article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to counteract how it has \u201cbeen expanded over time\u201d, with it now being used to allow criminals to stay.<\/p>\n A new appeals body would be formed in an attempt to accelerate removals, the Home Office\u2019s blueprint states. This would be staffed by \u201cprofessionally trained adjudicators\u201d and its aim would be to \u201cexpand the capacity of the appeals system\u201d.<\/p>\n Enver Solomon, the chief executive of Refugee Council, said: \u201cWhat\u2019s being forgotten here is that behind these proposals are men, women and children who have survived war, persecution and unimaginable loss, and who arrive in the UK with almost nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cThese reforms sound tough, but they won\u2019t fix the real problems in the asylum system. Instead, they risk creating more delays, more stress and more inhumane treatment for the very people the system is meant to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer is facing another major challenge to his authority as angry Labour MPs vowed to force changes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-268592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}