Pressure is growing on UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, including from within his own party, to take tougher action to cut the number of asylum seekers as the atmosphere in Britain over migration becomes ever more febrile.
New polling by YouGov, conducted for The Times of London, shows that 71 per cent of voters, including a majority of Labour members, think the prime minister is handling the migration issue badly.
The survey suggests more than five times as many British voters believe migration and asylum are their country’s top concern, compared with the proportion who believe the health service is the main issue.
After a summer of discontent including nationwide protests at hotels housing asylum seekers and agitation campaigns by right-wing nationalists, migration is now the top priority for 37 per cent of voters, well ahead of the economy at 25 per cent.
RM Block
The rising concern coincides with record numbers of asylum seekers arriving illegally in Britain on small boats this summer. More than 50,000 have entered the UK this way since Labour won power last July.
Perhaps most ominously for Mr Starmer, more than three times as many voters now believe Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is best equipped to deal with the issue, compared to the number who back the Labour government to find solutions. Reform is well ahead of Labour in all major opinion polls.
Capitalising on the timing of Britain’s summer spike in migration angst, Mr Farage is expected to launch a major new asylum policy in London on Tuesday.
Reform will announce plans to detain tens of thousands of asylum seekers in old army camps and deport any who arrive in Britain illegally on small boats.
Reform will also pledge to scrap laws allowing refugees to make legal challenges against deportation. Mr Farage says Reform will also pull Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
That heaps pressure on Labour to also address the ECHR, whether by abrogation, suspension or by changing how the convention is applied in Britain.
Mr Starmer has previously warned against leaving the convention altogether, but Yvette Cooper, Britain’s home secretary, has ordered a review of the ECHR’s article eight, the family clause often used by asylum cases.
Labour grandee David Blunkett, a former home secretary under Tony Blair, has suggested Mr Starmer’s government should consider suspending the ECHR to allow Britain take urgent action to cut the number of asylum seekers.
Reform, meanwhile, says it will scrap the Human Rights Act that transposes into British law many elements of the ECHR, and replace it with a bill of rights for UK citizens.
Zia Yusuf, a senior strategist for Farage and Reform’s former chairman, said the party’s plan would be designed to prevent “activist judges” from delaying deportations.
“We are not going to flinch. We’re not going to be intimidated. We are going to deliver for the British people. It’s the only way to restore this country. To stop the invasion from happening,” said Mr Yusuf.
Anti-immigrant protests promoted by right-wing groups allied with locals were held at scores of hotels across England and Scotland over the weekend, which was at least the third consecutive week of nationwide action.
The protesters were buoyed by a successful court application last week by a local council in Essex to force the Bell Hotel in Epping to cease housing migrants. The hotel was the scene of long-running protests after a resident was alleged to have sexually assaulted a schoolgirl.
Ms Cooper’s government department has indicated it will appeal against that decision. Over the weekend, however, she also announced her intention to tighten the appeals system for asylum seekers.
