Small boats migrants should be allowed to live and work in the UK, says Zack Polanski
Zack Polanski took advantage of Labour’s shift to the right on immigration and human rights by announcing that the Green Party would allow migrants arriving by small boats to live and work in the UK.
The Green Party leader accused Sir Keir Starmer and Labor of abiding by the “racist rhetoric of the far right, from Nigel Farage to Tommy Robinson” and insisted a new approach to the migrant crisis was needed.
On a trip to France, Mr. Polanski was seen helping people board small boats and fill water tanks.
His intervention came amid concerns Labor was losing support to the Greens rather than Reform.
“We must make racism unacceptable again,” he said Times in France. “We have seen situations where Ukrainian people were rightfully welcomed into the country with open arms, and they faced an illegal occupation, as it should be. But where is the same hospitality to the Sudanese people, the Eritrean people, the Yemeni people?
“I don’t think the British people are inherently racist. But the scarcity mentality is right because we have a government that is imposing austerity and underfunding communities, matched by the racist rhetoric of the far right from Nigel Farage to Tommy Robinson. That’s what’s fueling all of this.”
He said: “I think Nigel Farage has set the direction and Keir Starmer has caught up as quickly as possible. So we’re seeing a Labor Party failing at the polls because they refuse to stand for anything, and I think the British people are smarter than that. I think they’re nicer than that.”
“Of course people will be concerned about heinous crimes, whether from an immigrant or someone born in Britain. But this is a deliberate obfuscation of the conversation about the large numbers of people fleeing war and persecution who are stranded in Calais.”
Polanski, who describes himself as a green populist, said of his own plans: “I think people should be able to work, or be given the ability to work, from the moment they come to the UK, because that means they have to pay into the tax system.”
He said it was “cruel” to cram migrants into hotels and temporary accommodation with no way of earning money.
But this comes after Labour’s home affairs minister, Shabana Mahmood, recently announced new measures to tackle the immigration crisis and end abuse of the visa system, as well as diluting human rights such as the right to family life.
At an event hosted by the Tony Blair Institute earlier this week, Ms Mahmood said on the immigration crisis that British people were “decent, honest and tolerant” towards immigrants, but only if they came here legally. And he claimed support for strong controls on illegal and legal immigration from both “white and non-white working-class communities.”
