Home Secretary attacks Conservative immigration policy
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has denounced Tory immigration policy as requiring a “fantasy island” where claims would be processed.
Charles Clarke attacked the Tories in a statement aimed at explaining Labour’s approach to the controversial area of immigration and asylum. The Home Secretary stressed that Labour policies, while “workable and sensible”, were not widely known by the electorate.
The move comes following reports that immigration policy is an area where support for Labour falls some way behind that for the Tories.
Attempting to remedy the situation, the Home Secretary said that ID cards were at the heart of Labour’s approach to immigration. Polls had shown that the vast majority of the public were supportive of the measure when the Government had tried to introduce the cards in the last Parliament. Labour were forced to drop the legislation due to opposition from both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
Highlighting the advantages of the scheme, Charles Clarke said that the cards would make it clear who was entitled to what, whilst simultaneously arguing that Tory policy would leave the UK open to abuses of the immigration system. The Conservatives could not afford to introduce measures such as electronic border controls with fingerprinting because they proposed to half the immigration budget, he said.
Allaying widespread public fears of immigrants abusing the UK benefit system, the Home Secretary said that only skilled workers would be granted the right to live in the UK, and they would have to pass an English test if they wanted to remain permanently. He proposed a new points system whereby people would be rated according to what they could add to the British economy and skills base, as well as an end to “chain migration.” The automatic right to bring more relatives would be abolished.
Labour would also crack down on those abusing the asylum process, with failed asylum seekers being detained and electronically tagged if necessary, to stop them “disappearing” before leaving the UK. Employers found employing illegal workers would be heavily fined, and all refugees would be granted temporary, rather than permanent status.
Attacking Tory immigration and asylum policy, Charles Clarke said: “The core of the Tory policy is to fly every asylum applicant – at the British taxpayer’s expense – out to a fantasy island or country where their claims would be processed.”
Continuing the onslaught, the Home Secretary argued that halving the immigration budget was equivalent to the entire funding of border controls, the running costs of detention centres and enforcement against illegal immigrants.
Tory ideas “did not stack up,” Mr Clarke asserted, and urged voters not to allow the Conservatives to undo the progress made since 1997.
