In the lead up to the publication of the 2019 Labour Manifesto, no topic (other than Brexit itself) has been more fraught inside the party than the question of immigration, and in particular Labour’s plans for dealing with post-Brexit migration from the EU. The 2017 Manifesto was clear that ‘Freedom of movement will end when we leave the European Union’ and in April 2019 a spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn confirmed that this was Labour Party policy. However at the October 2019 conference, a motion put by Camberwell and Peckham CLP was passed, stating that in its next election manifesto Labour would include a wide range of pledges including closing all immigration detention centres, rejecting ‘any immigration system based on incomes, migrants’ utility to business, and number caps/targets’, maintaining and extending free movement rights and scrapping ‘all Hostile Environment measures, use of landlords and public service providers as border guards, and restrictions on migrants’ NHS access’.
The motion reflected less the overall concern of Labour Remainers and more the views of a significant section of party activists who have been appalled by the past nine years of deliberately ‘hostile’ Conservative immigration policies. They therefore seek to ensure that a future Labour government is not recreated in the mould of the Blair/Brown years, which were epitomised by a new and more punitive immigration act every year and statements like that of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who proclaimed: ‘The message is clear – whether you’re a visa overstayer, a foreign criminal or a failed asylum seeker, the UK Border Agency is determined to track you down and remove you from Britain.’
Conference motions are not binding, and this one faced the opposition of a significant section of Labour support, particularly in the trade unions, with a war of words involving Len McCluskey of Unite, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott and others in the run-up to the publication of the Manifesto. Unsurprisingly, the result is a fudge, in which what is given with one hand is rapidly taken away with the other.
So, there are promises to end indefinite detention, close Yarl’s Wood and Brook House immigration removal centres (although not Harmondsworth or any of the others which fulfil exactly the same function), scrap the 2014 Immigration Act, which introduced the ‘hostile environment’ and give refugees ‘the right to work, access to public services and… be treated humanely by government at all levels’. Internationally, there is a promise to ‘work with others to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean, co-operate with the French authorities to put an end to the horrific camps, and and establish safe and legal routes for asylum seekers.’
However, all this sits alongside complaints that the Tories have ‘further weakened our borders, cutting another 200 jobs over the last four years’ and ‘failed to deliver exit checks’ and the pledge that ‘A Labour government will review our border controls to make them more effective.’
The section of the Manifesto which deals specifically with what will happen to EEA nationals post-Brexit is unfathomable: ‘We will end the uncertainty created by the EU Settlement Scheme by granting EU nationals the automatic right to continue living and working in the UK. This new declaratory system will allow EU nationals the chance to register for proof of status if they wish, but will mean they no longer have to apply to continue living and working in this country.’ On the assumption that Labour has not accepted the conference motion and is not saying it will continue full-scale freedom of movement for all EEA nationals, how the distinction will then be made between EU nationals with this ‘automatic right’ and those without it, is anyone’s guess. Despite the rhetoric about ‘prevent[ing] a repeat of the shameful Windrush scandal and avoid[ing] unnecessarily criminalising hundreds of thousands of EU nationals’, this could be a recipe for doing precisely that.
For Labour, as for all capitalist political parties, the overriding reason for immigration controls is to control the flow of labour. While cloaked in language designed to appeal to the free movement supporters in the party, this overall aim is explicit: ‘our system will be built on human rights and aimed at meeting the skills and labour shortages that exist in our economy and public services…Our immigration system must allow us to recruit the people we need, and to welcome them and their families. Our work visa system must fill any skills or labour shortages that arise. The movement of people around the world has enriched our society, our economy and our culture.’
Nicki Jameson
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 273 December 2019/January 2020
