Labour faces a growing backlash from the left for preventing illegal immigrants gaining British citizenship_Nhy
Labour is facing a backlash from the left for preventing illegal immigrants gaining British citizenship.
The Home Office has quietly introduced new rules that mean anyone now applying to become a UK citizen will ‘normally be refused’ if they ‘previously entered the UK illegally’, even if they have been given refugee status or leave to remain.
The updated guidance on the ‘good character requirement’, which came into force on Monday, also states that applicants will be turned down if they made a ‘dangerous journey’ including by arriving by dinghy or hidden in a lorry.
It was published just days after new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called on Labour to ‘slow down the track for citizenship’ and make it clear that a obtaining a UK passport ‘should be a privilege not an automatic right’.
Under her first major policy, the length of time before migrants can apply for indefinite leave to remain would be doubled to 10 years and residency would be denied to those who claim benefits.
The Tories wants a ban on illegal immigrants getting citizenship written into primary legislation rather than simply being included in guidance which can be challenged or altered more easily.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Just days ago, Labour claimed changes to border rules were “unworkable”. But now they’re dancing to our tune with a change in position they have been forced into.
‘The Conservative party is under new leadership, which is why we are pressing ahead with our plans to safeguard the border – why we will bring in a hard cap on visa numbers and a working deterred to stop criminal gangs cashing in on human suffering.’
Border Force escort 50 migrants into Dover Docks, Kent on the same day the Government announced the new rules (February 12th)
A view of small boats and outboard motors used by people thought to be migrants to cross the Channel from France at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp speaking at the House of Commons in London
Labour’s updated guidance has prompted angry claims from left-wingers that the government is lurching to the right in a bid to head off the threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform party, which has now taken the lead in some opinion polls.
Corbynite MP John McDonnell said ‘the government is denying asylum seekers citizenship to pander to Reform’.
Refugee campaigner Zoe Gardner said it was a ‘cynical’ appeal to ‘anti-migrant voters’.
‘In short, this is exactly what the Tories did: They are not pretending to be decent, they want to be seen as cruel.
‘The political class has decided that that’s what you do to win. Labour’s fully joined the club.’
And Labour backbencher Stella Creasy claimed the tougher immigration rules would prevent Paddington Bear getting a British passport.
She told the BBC: ‘What I am concerned about is that actually this change is counterproductive to the message that we want to send about being proud of our country and the role that it has played in supporting those fleeing persecution.’
She went on: ‘This is not about whether we offer these people refuge, these people are people who can stay here already. This is about people who are here, who are part of our communities
‘Essentially it would deny, well, frankly, Paddington. Paddington did the same thing. He came by an irregular route, but we gave him sanctuary but wouldn’t give him a passport.’
Last year it emerged that the Home Office had issued a passport in the name of the bear, who in the much-loved children’s book arrived in England after stowing away in a ship from Peru, as a film prop.
