🔗 Share this article British Legal Experts Warn of ‘Dangerous Precedent’ Following Removal Proposal from Tory MP Prominent UK legal professionals have raised alarms about a political “race to the bottom”, after a Tory lawmaker considered a future party leader suggested that significant quantities of legally settled families must be deported. Controversial Statement on Legal Status Katie Lam, a opposition home affairs spokesperson and a party enforcer, stated that individuals with legal status in the UK should have their right to stay revoked, to guarantee the UK remains mostly “culturally coherent”. The Conservative leader, the party head, later retreated from Lam’s statement last Thursday. While the leader initially said the remarks were “broadly in line” with party policy, she later returned to current rules that only revoke indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status if someone has broken the law. Nevertheless, the statement has sparked concern for many as a signal of “dangerous times” and part of a broader political conversation. Growing Trend of Anti-Migrant Rhetoric In the past few months, leaders across political parties have adopted anti-immigration language and repeated policies that were once seen as extreme. Most recently, a political party leader complained about “numerous advertisements” seemingly including “black and Asian people”, and in September, the group’s head, Nigel Farage, pledged to abolish the main route for immigration to obtain British citizenship. Earlier this year, Keir Starmer said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without stricter border controls. “I don’t accept that the implications of that statement were not comprehended, and it was targeting a specific group,” said a leading barrister, who has investigated claims of discrimination within Labour. Forde, whose family emigrated from the West Indies, said Lam’s comments were a “thinly disguised keep Britain white campaign”. The leading barrister said the present political debate was an “absolute indictment” that someone like himself, from multiple generations of people who had contributed to the country, should still experience anxiety. “It’s a race to the bottom,” added the lawyer. “It’s desperate to see Labour feeling the sole solution to the rival party is to try and outdo their policies, rather than actually discuss the benefits of migration. “The language has to change and has to be accurate.” National Mood and Far-Right Activity Support for Reform has increased in the surveys, and far-right marches have attracted large crowds to London, leaving many British people of colour feeling the circumstances are similar to far-right marches from previous eras and concerned the UK is “regressing” as politicians target migrants. “These are perilous times,” said an immigration lawyer, who has acted for hundreds of affected individuals at the centre of the residency controversy, in which UK citizens from the former empire living in the UK legally were mistakenly categorized as illegal migrants. The lawyer said her father, who emigrated to the UK from the Caribbean in 1951, would be deeply disturbed over the present debate. Recently, her daughter has questioned whether they should get overseas citizenship. “Now we’re getting kids in their twenties and thirties who have got two generations ahead of them, born in Britain, experiencing insecurity,” said McKenzie. “These are extremely hazardous times where anti-migrant sentiment is being seen as a acceptable political direction for most political parties,” she added. “The principles here, the reach of it extend widely when you start talking about removing and removing people who are legally in the country, and millions of them as well. That’s something very different, isn’t it?” Individual Consequences People with permanent residency, or with partners who hold this status, have expressed that the recent policies floated by political figures have left them feeling insecure in the UK, and characterized the broader political anti-migrant discourse as discriminatory, frightening and unwelcoming. One individual, a dual British-Jordanian citizen living in Manchester with his wife and children, said the growing support of the party in the surveys had pushed him to get his British citizenship. For the last several years he has gone through the procedure of obtaining ILR – at a huge financial cost – after relocating to the UK on a spousal visa. Should the proposed policies be enacted, he worries his family would be split up. “It’s easy for someone to say now, well, that will not occur,” said the man, in his thirties. “Who knows how this plays out in the coming years.” While day to day, he has “no problems”, Darwazeh has been concerned by the increase of national symbols in his area, a trend that has been widely adopted by the far-right and immigration opponents. In the future, though the family has no wish to leave, they may think about it if the hostility persists. “I find it really odd that in a nation where immigrants are required, no one’s actually selling a beneficial narrative about immigration at all,” he remarked. “I consider the vilification very odd and frightening, for the future.”
Prominent UK legal professionals have raised alarms about a political “race to the bottom”, after a Tory lawmaker considered a future party leader suggested that significant quantities of legally settled families must be deported. Controversial Statement on Legal Status Katie Lam, a opposition home affairs spokesperson and a party enforcer, stated that individuals with legal status in the UK should have their right to stay revoked, to guarantee the UK remains mostly “culturally coherent”. The Conservative leader, the party head, later retreated from Lam’s statement last Thursday. While the leader initially said the remarks were “broadly in line” with party policy, she later returned to current rules that only revoke indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status if someone has broken the law. Nevertheless, the statement has sparked concern for many as a signal of “dangerous times” and part of a broader political conversation. Growing Trend of Anti-Migrant Rhetoric In the past few months, leaders across political parties have adopted anti-immigration language and repeated policies that were once seen as extreme. Most recently, a political party leader complained about “numerous advertisements” seemingly including “black and Asian people”, and in September, the group’s head, Nigel Farage, pledged to abolish the main route for immigration to obtain British citizenship. Earlier this year, Keir Starmer said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without stricter border controls. “I don’t accept that the implications of that statement were not comprehended, and it was targeting a specific group,” said a leading barrister, who has investigated claims of discrimination within Labour. Forde, whose family emigrated from the West Indies, said Lam’s comments were a “thinly disguised keep Britain white campaign”. The leading barrister said the present political debate was an “absolute indictment” that someone like himself, from multiple generations of people who had contributed to the country, should still experience anxiety. “It’s a race to the bottom,” added the lawyer. “It’s desperate to see Labour feeling the sole solution to the rival party is to try and outdo their policies, rather than actually discuss the benefits of migration. “The language has to change and has to be accurate.” National Mood and Far-Right Activity Support for Reform has increased in the surveys, and far-right marches have attracted large crowds to London, leaving many British people of colour feeling the circumstances are similar to far-right marches from previous eras and concerned the UK is “regressing” as politicians target migrants. “These are perilous times,” said an immigration lawyer, who has acted for hundreds of affected individuals at the centre of the residency controversy, in which UK citizens from the former empire living in the UK legally were mistakenly categorized as illegal migrants. The lawyer said her father, who emigrated to the UK from the Caribbean in 1951, would be deeply disturbed over the present debate. Recently, her daughter has questioned whether they should get overseas citizenship. “Now we’re getting kids in their twenties and thirties who have got two generations ahead of them, born in Britain, experiencing insecurity,” said McKenzie. “These are extremely hazardous times where anti-migrant sentiment is being seen as a acceptable political direction for most political parties,” she added. “The principles here, the reach of it extend widely when you start talking about removing and removing people who are legally in the country, and millions of them as well. That’s something very different, isn’t it?” Individual Consequences People with permanent residency, or with partners who hold this status, have expressed that the recent policies floated by political figures have left them feeling insecure in the UK, and characterized the broader political anti-migrant discourse as discriminatory, frightening and unwelcoming. One individual, a dual British-Jordanian citizen living in Manchester with his wife and children, said the growing support of the party in the surveys had pushed him to get his British citizenship. For the last several years he has gone through the procedure of obtaining ILR – at a huge financial cost – after relocating to the UK on a spousal visa. Should the proposed policies be enacted, he worries his family would be split up. “It’s easy for someone to say now, well, that will not occur,” said the man, in his thirties. “Who knows how this plays out in the coming years.” While day to day, he has “no problems”, Darwazeh has been concerned by the increase of national symbols in his area, a trend that has been widely adopted by the far-right and immigration opponents. In the future, though the family has no wish to leave, they may think about it if the hostility persists. “I find it really odd that in a nation where immigrants are required, no one’s actually selling a beneficial narrative about immigration at all,” he remarked. “I consider the vilification very odd and frightening, for the future.”