Immigration has always been a tricky issue for Labour, both in and out of government. John Reid, when Home Secretary in Tony Blair’s administration, said that he did not enter politics to crack down on incomers and tighten the security state, but September 11 and the expansion of the European Union following the disintegration of the Soviet bloc had moved the goalposts.
The same attitude was taken by former immigration minister Phil Woolas, disgracefully hung out to dry and then dumped by Harriet Harman and other frontbench colleagues. Both were instrumental in setting up the UK Border Agency, charged with checks on potential terrorists and curbs on bogus immigrant numbers.
Immigration was also, according to pollsters, the second biggest issue of concern, after the economy, in the minds of voters ahead of the last general election.
Labour suffered as a result, although not to the extent of giving the Tories outright victory, not because of large-scale electoral racism but because of genuine fears over safety, extremism and the impact on jobs and hard-pressed services such as education and health.
The fear of Islamic extremism was balanced by distaste of home-grown fanaticism, which is why fringe parties such as the British National Party did not benefit.
Labour in power post-September 11 understood that any government’s primary responsibility is the safety of its citizens. Ministers such as Reid and Woolas did not talk tough on the issue, but acted in a hard-nosed way. Now we see that under the Tory-led coalition the reverse is true.
This week tough-talking Home Secretary Theresa May was forced to admit that she approved the relaxation of border controls, confirming previous leaks from the UK Border Agency which have already claimed the scalp of former chief Brodie Clark.
Both authorised the pilot scheme that ran from July to September at Britain’s airports and ports.
It allowed EU citizens with biometric chip passports, school parties and children under 19 to pass
through completely unchecked, while non-EU citizens were waived through without having fingerprints and details checked against a national database of suspected terrorists and illegal immigrants.
As a result, May had to admit, the Government has no idea how many criminals, bogus applicants and possible terrorists were waived through.
This is not just of concern to Little Englanders and saloon bar bores, but to every law-abiding family whatever their ethnic or geographic backgrounds.
The biggest growth industries in the current recession are people-trafficking for sex or virtual slave labour,
money-laundering and duty-dodging of cigarettes and other commodities, the profits from which are ploughed into drug imports by highly organised and sophisticated criminal gangs.
Characteristically, May tried to blame the hapless Clark, but further leaks clearly show that the pilot scheme, during which an estimated five million foreign nationals passed through entry points, were green-lighted from the top.
Her Opposition Shadow, Yvette Cooper, said: “Thousands entered the country without proper checks and without the Home Secretary havingany clue about what was going on.
It’s no good blaming the previous Government. It’s no good blaming officials. This happened on her watch. She should stop trying to pass the buck.”
That’ll be the day. But this debacle shows that for the current administration the bottom line is always cost-cutting, regardless of the potential impact of the citizens it is supposed to safeguard.
