UK lawyers warn of ‘race to the bottom’ after Tory MP issues deportation threat | Immigration and asylum
Leading British lawyers have warned of a political “race to the bottom” after a Conservative MP said as future party leader that large numbers of legally settled families should be deported.
Shadow Home Secretary and Conservative Party supporter Katie Lam said the right to remain for people with legal status in the UK should be revoked to ensure the UK remains mostly “culturally consistent”. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch responded weeks later to Lam’s statement last Thursday.
Although Badenoch moved from saying the statement was “generally in line with party policy” to reverting to the current policy of revoking indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status if someone commits an offence, the statement caused concern among many as it signaled “dangerous times” and belonged to a wider political discourse. In recent months, leaders of political parties have absorbed anti-immigrant rhetoric and repeated once-fringe policies.
Recently, a Reform UK leader complained about “every advert” that ostensibly features “black and Asian people”, and in September the party’s leader Nigel Farage promised to abolish the main route of immigration to gain British citizenship. Earlier this year, Keir Starmer said Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers” without tougher immigration policies.
Martin Forde KC, a leading lawyer investigating allegations of racism within the Labor Party, said: “I do not accept that the implications of this statement are fully understood and that it is addressed to a specific audience.”
Forde, whose parents emigrated from the Caribbean, said Lam’s comments were a “keep white Britain” campaign. The leading lawyer said the current political discourse was an “absolute indictment” that people like him, who have contributed to the country for generations, should still not feel safe.
“This is a race to the bottom,” Forde added. “It is hopeless that Labor thinks the only answer to Reformation is to try and leave Reformation behind, instead of talking about the positive aspects of immigration.
“Rhetoric must change and be correct.”
Support for the Reformation rose in the polls and far-right marches drew thousands to London; This has left many minority ethnic Britons feeling like the situation is reminiscent of far-right marches decades ago and fearing the UK is “going backwards” as politicians target immigrants.
“We are in very dangerous times,” said Jacqueline McKenzie, a lawyer who represents hundreds of victims at the center of the Windrush scandal, in which Commonwealth Britons living legally in the UK were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants.
McKenzie said his father, who emigrated from Jamaica to England in 1951, would be rolling in his grave because of the current discourse. Recently her daughter questioned whether they should get a Caribbean passport.
“We’re now getting kids in their 20s and 30s, with two generations ahead of them, born in Britain, who feel less of themselves,” said McKenzie, partner and head of immigration and asylum law at Leigh Day.
“We are in really dangerous times where anti-immigrant fervor is seen as a legitimate policy orientation for most political parties,” he added. “When you start talking about deporting and removing people who are in the country legally and millions of others, the principles, the tentacles of that expand so much. That’s a very different thing, right?”
People who hold ILR status, or whose partners hold it, told the Guardian that recent policies implemented by Conservative and Reform leaders have made them feel unsafe in the UK, and described wider political anti-immigrant rhetoric as racist, intimidating and hostile.
Ramzi Darwazeh, a British-Jordanian dual citizen who lives in Manchester with his wife and children, said that the recent Reform trend in the polls pushed him to take British citizenship. For the past six years, she has gone through the process of obtaining ILR at great financial cost after moving to the UK on a spousal visa. He fears his family will be separated if the proposed policies are implemented.
“It’s easy for someone to say it will never happen anymore,” Darwazeh, 37, said. “Who knows how this will play out in two, three years?”
Although he has “no problems” every day, Darwazeh is alarmed by the proliferation of St George flags in his area, a practice widely adopted by the far-right and anti-immigration protesters. Even if the family has no intention of leaving in the long run, they may consider it if the hostility continues.
“I find it really strange that in a country where immigrants are needed, no one is actually selling a positive story about immigration,” he added. “I find demonetization very strange and scary in the long run.”
