Labour pandering to Farage on migration
The Scottish Greens have condemned harsh new anti-migrant rules announced by the Home Secretary as reforms to Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman said:
“It was only yesterday that Keir Starmer denounced Nigel Farage’s policies as racist, but the Home Secretary has used them as a blueprint.
“It is a scary time for immigrants in the UK and it seems to be getting worse. It is sickening to see the Westminster parties competing with each other to see who can make life hardest for migrant communities. They are using people’s lives as pawns in their horrible political games with no care for the human cost.
“You do not beat a far right party like Reform by copying and pandering to them. What The Home Secretary is proposing would mean families are split apart, and people would be forced to leave jobs and communities that they have lived in for years.
“Refugees will be particularly badly hit by these awful changes, heaping further misery on some of the most marginalised individuals and families in our country who already face punishing restrictions on what they can do and what support they can access.
“At heart this is a question of what kind of country we want to be. Do we really want to close ourselves off from the world and treat everyone outside it with suspicion and hostility?
“Immigrants are our friends, neighbours and loved ones and they enrich our country every day. I urge the Home Secretary to reconsider if she really wants to take us further down this hard right route that is paved with fear, division and misery.”
Maggie added:
“With polls suggesting Reform could form the next UK government it's vital that MSPs and MPs from all parties unite to ensure that Scotland has the powers to set our own welcoming and humane immigration policies rather than leaving them in the hands of a far right government and a broken and racist Home Office."