Burnham urged to ditch Mahmood’s migrant settlement plans to stop Labour being ‘imitation’ of Reform – UK politics live | Politics
Former Tory MP and Reform UK member Ann Widdecombe dies, aged 78
Former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe has died aged 78, her management said. There is the story of Kevin Rawlinson.
Burnham urged by MPs to abandon Mahmood’s immigration settlement plans to prevent Labor becoming ‘pale imitation’ of Reform UK
Good morning. Even the BBC has (almost) given up on making a statement Andy Burnham as the person who is likely or almost certain to be the next Prime Minister. As of last night, it’s a done deal, barring something unexpected enough to be in the act of God category. workforce we published the names He is one of the MPs who nominated Burnham and he has 322 nominations. There are only 81 Labor MPs left who have not nominated anyone. Coincidentally (or is it?), 81 is exactly the number of names a rival candidate would need to run. But in Labor politics the outgoing leader does not nominate a successor and so in practice Burnham has already passed the threshold. Completed; he is the next leader and Prime Minister.
There is currently strong support for Burnham from all wings of the party. Leftists and Blairites appear equally keen. Unfortunately for Burnham, this is unlikely to last long.
like last night Pippa Crerar Burnham called out the left, saying Labor’s initial response to Israel’s attack on Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, “didn’t get it right”. He said Labor needed to “do better”.
Non-Labour leftists overnight criticized Burnham for not going further and calling Israel’s behavior genocide.
Today Burnham faces a new challenge from the left. Like Richard Vaughan, Kitty Donaldson And Caroline Wheeler report in a story for meAlmost 80 Labor MPs signed a letter to Burnham complaining that immigration policies implemented by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood risked being seen as a “pale imitation of Reformation” by Labor. [UK]”. Patrick Maguire The Times published the full text of the letter on social media.
MPs are particularly critical of Mahmood’s plan to make migrants already in the country wait much longer before they can qualify for indefinite leave to remain (ILR). Currently people normally have to wait five years, but Mahmood wants to make 10 years the norm, with some groups having to wait even longer.
The MPs say the following in their letters:
After Reform’s “Boris wave” rhetoric, we decided to fight in Reform territory. Targeting a group of rule-abiding immigrants and applying it retroactively does not pass the test of fairness of a compassionate but harsh system. We don’t recall making it harder for migrant workers to settle in the UK being asked on the doorstep. Yet we are wasting political capital, huge Home Office resources, and losing progressive voters who are taking indefinite leave to pursue reform that few truly understand or want. People in Makerfield have talked about irregular immigration, which has not made it difficult for nurses and care workers to settle here. A 10-20 year solution will see the UK become an international outlier, weakening our soft power and attractiveness as a place to work, invest, make a living and build relationships.
This will weaken our communities and undermine our own strategies to address child poverty, violence against women and girls and homelessness. And the proposals would cost the state billions. This kind of reactive policymaking is anathema to who we are, what we stand for, and how we should do policy.
The letter implies that Burnham should remove Mahmood from the Home Office. However, during the Makerfield by-election campaign, Burnham broadly supported Mahmood’s actions; although he said last year, when the ILR plans were first announced, that he “had a concern about depriving people of the ability to settle, one of the concerns was whether there was a need to constantly check the situation in the countries that people were coming from and that could limit the Home Office’s ability to deal with the backlog”.
There are many other stories today about the challenges Burnham faced. I will post about them soon.
Reform UK continues to be under pressure due to its financial situation. Here is our last story Anna Isaac.
Here is the agenda of the day.
10am: Suspended Labor MP Karl Turner is hosting the LBC call-in, replacing James O’Brien.
11am: Green Party leader Zack Polanski gives a speech on rent controls.
11.30: A lobby briefing is being held in Downing Street.
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