Having spent a brief period in the political wilderness during the short reign of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, Suella Braverman was reappointed as Home Secretary by Rishi Sunak on 25 October. Whilst none of the Conservative leadership can be said to have any compassion for the working class, especially not for migrants, like the also reappointed Justice Minister Dominic Raab, Braverman typifies a particularly poisonous strand of Tory politicians, riven with naked ruling class hatred for the oppressed. NICKI JAMESON reports.
The ‘Rwanda Plan’ of Braverman’s predecessor Priti Patel is currently on hold pending the outcome of legal challenges, and following the successful actions of campaigners and lawyers in June preventing the first deportation flight to Rwanda from going ahead. The government has therefore been scouting around for other options whereby it can either dump a sizeable group of asylum seekers on another country, or prevent them getting to Britain in the first place. On 14 November Braverman and French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin signed an agreement, whereby Britain will pay France £8m more than it currently does for anti-migrant border policing on the northern French coast.
Racism and imperialism
Britain is an imperialist country which has looted and plundered half the world. Whether under the formal British Empire or, more recently, under the guise of NATO or other such formulations, it has bombed, occupied and wreaked havoc and environmental destruction. Yet the people who flee that havoc are vilified and criminalised. Successive British governments, Labour and Tory, have made it increasingly difficult for most migrants and asylum seekers to enter and settle in Britain. This has of course led people to try other, riskier ways to arrive.
More than 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats in 2022 so far. In 2021, the total was 28,526. In sharp contrast to the 123,000 people who arrived in Britain by plane between January 2021 and July 2022 under the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa scheme, who have been welcomed, housed and integrated, those who come via the Channel are deliberately characterised as an intractable problem, only solvable by the most extreme of methods.
Law abiding citizens vs the tofu-eating mob
Enraged at the stalling of the Rwanda Plan, in her speech to the Conservative Party conference on 4 October, Braverman pledged to go in even harder against both migrants and those ‘woke’ people who stand in solidarity with them. She characterised this struggle as between ‘the law-abiding majority’ and ‘the mob’. She reprised this in Parliament on 18 October, railing against an imaginary coalition of enemies: ‘It’s the Labour Party, it’s the Lib Dems, it’s the coalition of chaos, it’s the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati…’
Braverman has sought to be even more ruthless than any of her predecessors. On 1 October, speaking to right-wing tabloid The Sun she launched an attack on people who claim asylum on the basis that they are victims of trafficking or modern slavery. Repeating this in her conference speech, Braverman claimed that they are ‘gaming the system’. The Modern Slavery Act 2015, through which victims of trafficking can claim asylum, was brought in by previous Home Secretary Theresa May. May is no woke liberal and was the architect of the hostile environment, which turned teachers, doctors, employers and landlords into immigration cops, who had to ask people’s immigration status repeatedly and report any transgressors to the Home Office.
Braverman’s ruthlessness is not accompanied by efficiency or in-depth knowledge of her subject. Questioned by the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee on 23 November, she was incapable of explaining how an asylum seeker from a war-torn country would get to Britain by the ‘safe and legal route’ the Home Office insists are available as an alternative to entering ‘illegally’ and claiming asylum on arrival. She also refused or was unable to answer questions about the Home Office’s catastrophic mishandling of asylum seeker accommodation provision.
No opposition from Labour
Whatever Braverman says about its place in her imaginary ‘woke coalition’, the Labour Party is not mounting any opposition to the government’s racist excesses. On the contrary, straight after Braverman’s conference speech, Labour Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves complained that the Conservative Party had no right to claim it would ‘solve’ the migration problem given that it had failed so far to deport anywhere near enough people. Labour leader Keir Starmer called the increased funding of French border controls ‘a small step in the right direction’ and told the BBC on 6 November that the NHS was recruiting too many workers from overseas: ‘We don’t want open borders. Freedom of movement has gone and it’s not coming back.’
Manston hell-hole shut down
Unlike the migrants from Hong Kong, who are welcomed with open arms, those who brave the dangerous Channel crossing are given a hostile reception. This begins with an initial screening and processing at facilities dotted around the south east area. Following earlier scandals around insanitary and overcrowded accommodation facilities at Napier and Penally Barracks, the Manston holding centre, located in a former military base in Kent was opened in February 2022, on the basis it would house up to 1,600 people for around 24 hours each. From there they would be moved to hotels or other accommodation. However, at the end of October it was reported that there were over 3,800 detainees at Manston, some of whom had been there for over a month, including families with small children. Protests, publicity and legal challenges around the inhumane conditions, including reports of a diphtheria outbreak, forced the Home Office to drastically reduce numbers. This in turn was botched, including newly arrived migrants simply being dropped off in London with no support. On 19 November it was reported that a man held at Manston had died. As of 22 November, Manston was empty, with everyone held there having been relocated.
Build the movement!
The stopping of the Rwanda flight and exposing of the conditions at Manston are victories against this racist government. We must build a real coalition of anti-racists and anti-imperialists which will give the likes of Braverman far more to fear than the one they are currently fighting an imaginary war against.
Stand with asylum seekers and migrants! No-one is illegal! An injury to one is an injury to all!
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 291 December 2022/January 2023
