Why Tommy Robinson is backing Labour's new immigration plans

Read time: 5 mins

In brief…

• The UK will begin fast-tracking deportations, only grant asylum on a temporary basis and deport people if an unsafe country they escaped is later deemed safe under new rules laid down by Shabana Mahmood.
• The News Agents say this is an attempt to sound tough from Labour, and that many of its MPs won’t be happy supporting a bill that “hates on foreigners”.
• Labour MP Stella Creasy tells Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel she believes Mahmood’s proposals will create a group of people in more need of financial support, if they are unable to rebuild their lives in the UK.

What’s the story?

When details of Shabana Mahmood’s plans to cut immigration in the UK were announced, she won some unlikely, and potentially unwanted, support.

Tommy Robinson, convicted criminal and far-right activist, congratulated his own supporters (referring to them as “patriots”) in a social media post celebrating Mahmood’s plans, in which he stated: “The Overton window has been obliterated."

The Overton window is the range of subjects, arguments and policies that are considered acceptable in mainstream public discourse at any given time.

In this instance, Robinson (real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon) is referring to comments about only allowing asylum seekers to stay in the UK on a temporary basis.

Mahmood’s tough new measures are aimed at discouraging people from attempting to enter the UK, and in some cases remove people from our shores.

These include fast-tracking deportations, only granting asylum on a temporary basis, only accepting applications for permanent settlement after 20 years, and deporting people who have fled unsafe countries when they are later deemed safe.

There has also been the suggestion that jewellery could be taken from people seeking asylum in the UK in order to pay for the costs of processing their cases.

“The perception is that Britain is a soft touch,” says Jon Sopel.

“Therefore, if you can get the message out there that we're coming after your jewellery as well, then maybe that will act as some kind of deterrent to people.”

Emily says that while Mahmood sounds tough in what she’s saying, the test will come if she, and Labour as a whole, is willing to act on these policies.

“If Reform put this on their manifesto, you know they'd do it, because I don't think they come to this from a place of compassion – or they would argue their compassion is for the British people, not for the asylum seekers,” she says.

Emily compares Mahmood’s strategy to Nigel Farage standing on the cliffs of Dover with a megaphone yelling at migrants arriving to go home.

“The trouble for Labour and their unwieldy, big backbench, is that they don't really want to be the party that hates on foreigners,” she adds.

“They don't really want to be the party that sounds like they're going to take people's jewels, or they're going to deport people as soon as they can, or they stop them becoming part of a community.”

‘We should not be frisking rape victims for their jewellery’

Labour MP Stella Creasy, who opposes Mahmood's proposals, says it doesn't matter what Robinson – or others on the far-right say on the matter, and is not something the government will be judging its success on.

"It doesn't matter what Mr. Robinson or Mr. Farage say they are not driving the policy," Creasy tells The News Agents.

She tells Emily and Jon that what Mahmood has proposed will make "a really difficult situation worse," and while she believes the UK needs better control of its borders, what has been suggested is neither a progressive, or practical, way forward.

“Since we left the EU, tackling issues around border control has become substantially harder,” Creasy says. “We don't have the same datasets and data access that we used to have, so we don't know who's been refused asylum in other countries, or have information on joint operations to tackle those groups.”

Some critics have claimed Labour’s attempts to appear tough on immigration are a direct response to the rise of Reform UK, which have led opinion polls with its focus on hard action to prevent asylum seekers from entering the country, and removing people from overseas.

“I’ve never believed in letting Mr. Farage write policy. That's why I don't want to see him be Prime Minister,” Creasy says.

“It doesn't matter what Mr. Robinson or Mr. Farage say – they are not driving it.”

Being granted asylum seeker status in the UK, permanent or temporary, Creasy says is a recognition of the persecution they have experienced in their homeland, and that new rules on remaining in the country makes it impossible for them to rebuild their lives, achieving "very little".

“Removing their ability to rebuild their lives achieves very little, if anything. It then creates a whole new group of people in our society who are in a more precarious position,” she says.

“It's a recipe for having to spend more on supporting those people rather than them being able to contribute to society.

“I am absolutely ruthless that the progressive response is integration, and it is to make it easier for people to be able to contribute to the countries that then become their home nations.”

This could affect a huge number of people from Ukraine, who now have children in UK schools, who could – in the future – be forced to return, despite making a life for themselves in the UK.

Creasy says the UK does not have “the stomach” for the ICE-style raids seen in the US since Donald Trump returned to power, and believes the money Mahmood intends to spend on her proposals would be better spent on the UK’s borders.

Opposition to the proposals inside Labour is, for now, relatively small, but Creasy believes MPs supporting Mahmood’s proposals are getting “intertwined with a separate debate” about finding a balance for people to enter, work, study and either leave or become part of the UK.

“I also know there are a lot of people who are deeply uncomfortable at the idea that we would somehow be frisking people at the border to see if we can remove their jewellery,” she adds.

“That's not the way we want to manage somebody who is a victim of torture or somebody who has been raped as a weapon of war.”

What’s The News Agents’ take?

Jon believes the reason many Labour backbench MPs are willing to vote against measures such as these, is due to polling suggesting Labour will likely lose another general election. They would have to then return to their previous careers – many of which in the voluntary sector.

Voting for proposals such as these could set them at a disadvantage.

“That cannot be how the cabinet functions,” says Emily.

Jon says it speaks to the “total lack of self confidence” of Labour MPs in the government.

“The Labour government cannot govern because the back benches are ungovernable,” he says.

“And I think this is a real problem for them.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.