ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

Tories and Lib Dems defeat Government on settlement rights for Gurkhas

Following exchanges over the issue at PMQs earlier, a vote has just taken place during an Opposition Day debate initiated by the Liberal Democrats in which the Government was defeated on settlement rights for Gurkhas.

MPs voted by 267 to 246 in favour of a motion that the government should extend an equal right of residence to all Gurkhas.

Conservatives and Lib Dem joined forces along with, I imagine, a number of Labour rebels (28 according to sources around the murmurs around the Commons). In advance of this afternoon's vote, shadow immigration minister Damian Green said:

“We are supporting the Gurkhas today because we believe the Government is being ungenerous and unfair. A Conservative Government would give all Gurkhas and their immediate dependents the right to settle here, and we hope the Government listens and acts immediately on this matter.”

Paul Waugh notes that David Cameron and Nick Clegg made a joint appearance outside the Commons in the wake of the vote, which is the culmination of a long campaign, highlighted here last week.

5.45pm update:

The following statements have just been put out:

Joanna Lumley, campaigning for Gurkhas, says she is "ashamed" of Labour

The actress was responding to Labour's bureaucratic plan for the settlement of Gurkha soldiers in Britain.  Ms Lumley says that Labour's criteria for settlement will be impossible to meet for "ordinary Gurkhas".  Watch the video in full.  Well worth it.

Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green MP commented:

“The Government is trying to evade the effects of a very clear court judgement. This is an insult to the Gurkhas. We have said all along that the Government should not try to challenge the courts and they would have done better to listen.”

Tim Montgomerie

> Click here for the website of the Gurkha Justice Campaign.

Boris tells Panorama that he wants tax revenue from London's 500,000 irregular migrants

Tonight's Panorama programme will reveal that the number of illegal immigrants in London and the UK are well above previous estimates. The latest estimate is that in 2007 there were between 524,000 to 947,000 illegal immigrants in the UK (central estimate 725,000). Previous estimates of illegal immigrants in the UK in 2001 were 310,000 – 570,000 (central estimate 430,000).  Boris Johnson will tell the programme that, in the absence of a credible deportation regime, he is open to the regularisation of these illegal immigrants so that they pay taxes (not something they currently do) in order to pay for their use of public services (something they do currently do).

ConservativeHome has been provided this verbatim preview of an exchange between Mayor Boris Johnson and the Panorama interviewer:

"Panorama – ‘Why do you support the idea of an earned amnesty?’

Mayor - 'We are not at that stage yet. What we have is a report by the LSE, that shows there are 500,000 people who are irregular migrants in London, from people breaking the law all sorts of people who are waiting for their papers to come through and there is a huge issue in dealing with that, because we are not sending them back because of the failure of Government policies, irregular migrants are not being sent back, only a maximum of 12,000 a year.’

Panorama – ‘Why?’

Mayor – ‘Failure of the Government. If you go on on this rate it will take 60 years to clear the backlog.'

Panorama – ‘60 years?’

Mayor – ‘It's extremely expensive to deport migrants, let me be clear I am in favour of sending them back but we must be realistic. We need to do two things simultaneously if we are serious, first we need to tighten the borders, we need to be much more robust because we don’t know who is here, it's crazy. Secondly we need a frank debate about what to do with the half a million who are not able to join the economy legally but are not allowed to make contribution to society and make case for earned amnesty, if they have been here for a long time and it looks like and if they can make a contribution they should be given the chance to regualrise their status.'"

Immigration could be top issue at European Elections

Last Friday's Telegraph reported that immigration was becoming voters' top issue.  This morning's Times warns of "hordes of unemployed workers heading west" unless radical action is taken to bail out recession-struck Eastern European nations.  But although the "rich" EU nations will struggle to afford any bailout this week's Economist uses its cover feature to warn that "western Europe cannot afford not to pay it."  It warns of catastrophic implications for EU banks and the wider economy if the East is allowed to fail.

The same issue of The Economist carries an article examing the pressures facing Germany as it moves towards a reluctant acceptance that "the collective" will have to help.  The article is illustrated with a photograph of Angela Merkel digging into her handbag.

Both UKIP and the BNP will undoubtedly seize on these issues as June's European Elections approach.

UKIP's political credibility was damaged last night, however, after Robin Page accused his former party's leadership of falling in love with "the high life of gravy and status".  Writing for The Telegraph Mr Page said: "The party created to fight centralised government, sleaze and corruption has become a parody of itself, a mirror image of the body it professes to loathe."  UKIP is dismissing the attack as sour grapes after the former presenter of BBCtv's One Man And His Dog was prevented from standing as a UKIP candidate in East Anglia.

Tim Montgomerie

Damian Green: "I regard anyone born in Britain as British"

There's been some excitement across the blogosphere today at this passage in The Daily Mail:

"Although the figures from the Government's Office for National Statistics show an increase in numbers of foreign born people they still fail to record the true impact of immigration because they record their children as British rather than second or third generation immigrants."

Daniel Finkelstein asks "Does the Daily Mail think I'm British?"

Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green MP does.  He's just issued this statement to ConHome:

"I regard anyone born in Britain as British, unless they choose to take another nationality. Whenever I speak to a large meeting I ask how many in the audience have at least one parent born outside the UK. Generally speaking, the younger the audience, the higher the percentage."

The Tories raise concerns about the number of immigrants working in Britain (but don't mind if they're from elsewhere in the EU)

The Conservatives have unveiled figures which show that the number of foreign workers in Britain has virtually doubled under the Labour Government - from 2 million in 1997 to 3.8 million today - and the story is the splash in today's Daily Mail and Daily Express.

This figure is based on House of Commons Library research commissioned by shadow work and pensions minister, James Clappison, and means that 13% of those working in Britain were born abroad. Furthermore, two thirds of them come from outside the EU, equivalent to 9% of the total workforce.

Mr Clappison said that the figures were "yet more evidence that Labour have failed to bring migration from outside the EU under control, despite repeated promises to do so".

Shadow immigration minister Damian Green added:

"There cannot be anyone left in this country who believes Gordon Brown's pledge of British jobs for British workers. This shows the continuing failure of the Government's immigration policy. A Conservative Government would introduce an annual limit on work permits for people from outside the EU. That's the only way you can get some control into the system."

However, there was no comment forthcoming from a Conservative spokesman on a new MigrationWatch study also published today, which shows that there are up to four times the number of EU workers employed in the UK as British-born workers employed in the other 26 countries of the EU.

According to its research, 286,000 UK nationals are working elsewhere in the European Union, whilst 1,172,000 of those born elsewhere in the EU are now working in the UK.

I gather that the party opted not to comment on this study on the basis that it has no intention of trying to change the EU rules on free movement of labour.

Jonathan Isaby

British jobs for Italian workers today but there'll be Italian jobs for British workers tomorrow

Eighteen months ago Gordon Brown promised British jobs for British workers - a slogan we learnt had also been used by the BNP.  Yesterday that phrase was used in anger against him as British workers saw 400 largely Italian employees of an Italian contractor recruited to build an extension to the Lindsay Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire.  The Sun identifies fourteen wildcat strikes in support of action taken by Lindsay's British workers.

Billy Bones (a great name that could have come from the 1970s) - a pipefitter at the Lindsey refinery and union official - told the FT: “I would not be surprised if by Monday afternoon the whole construction industry nationwide is out. We’ve got our backs against the wall.  This has been brewing for years. We have the skills to do the jobs but are not getting them.”

Yesterday in Davos, David Cameron was quick to criticise Gordon Brown for using the British workers phrase:

"There are legitimate questions to be asked of this company.  If it is disqualifying British workers from applying for jobs, then that is illegal. But the Prime Minister should never have used that slogan. On the one hand he lectures everyone about globalisation and on the other he borrows this slogan from the BNP. He has been taking people for fools and has been found out."

Labour's double failure to (1) control immigration from outside the EU and (2) to reskill British workers during better times means that there are no easy solutions to this crisis.  EU law protects the right of nationals from member states to work here.  Over at CentreRight, Peter Whittle believes that we should strongly support the protestors.  It's a temptation but one we should resist.  Conservatives should not tolerate illegal strikes and, more strategically, we should argue for the long-term benefits of open markets even when they conflict with immediate British interests.  That will often be a very tough argument to make but there will be many other times when UK workers - not least in the financial services sector - benefit from our free access to other markets.

The bigger message we need to get across - at a time when Barack Obama is making protectionist noises - is that a retreat from free trade is the surest way to turn today's recession into tomorrow's depression.  Some Tory talk of buying locally is close to a form of economic isolationism.

Tim Montgomerie

"Multiracial Britain is a success but immigration is too high"

That is how I would sum up the message which David Cameron delivered when asked about the thorny issue of immigration by Jeff Randall on Sky News last night.

The Tory leader has not exactly gone out of his way to raise the matter during his leadership, after the party courted criticism for making it too prominent an issue at the last general election.

However, he denied the suggestion that he had avoided discussing it and said the following:

“I think that immigration is too high, I think it needs to be limited and I think the numbers need to come down... I don’t think in any way I’ve shied away from this policy, but I wanted to make sure the Conservative Party would be listened to and heard as a bunch of reasonable people making a reasonable point. The problem in the past is whenever we’ve talked about this issue people questioned our motives – why are they doing that?”

“I think it was very important to make it clear that we believe in a multiracial Britain. We believe it’s a success. We think immigration has been good for Britain in the past. We think immigration will continue, but not any immigration, not all immigration, it needs to be controlled."

"Controlled Immigration" was of course the fifth of Michael Howard's five two-word phrases which he said summed up the major planks of Conservative policy in advance of the 2005 general election.

Jonathan Isaby

Damian Green tipped for the shadow cabinet

The Sunday Telegraph's Melissa Kite has a bad track record when it comes to Tory reshuffles but her latest speculation has a ring of truth about it.  Quoting an unnamed "senior Tory source" she says that Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green is "an absolute cert for promotion."  I hope so.  He has done a good job with the immigration portfolio. He's loyal. He works very hard. Is good on TV.  And is liked by his colleagues.

Tim Montgomerie

Lessons from the Damian Green affair for Tory strategy

A senior member of the shadow cabinet has told ConservativeHome that the Damian Green affair had important lessons for the next steps of Tory strategy.

He said that the Speaker, Metropolitan Police and Home Secretary all had had big questions to answer over how Damian Green had been subject to such a heavy-handed operation but that the Conservatives had "played the whole affair wrong":

"The public doesn't care much about the rights of MPs. They should care more but we can't change that overnight. They do care that the Government has lost control of our borders and about illegal immigrants. We should have made made the immigration issue the story.  We should have gone on to the TV screens with a 'We tried to tell you about the Government's immigration disaster and they tried to arrest us...' message."

Polling analysed by Anthony Wells found that 45% of Britons saw the Damian Green arrest and its fallout as a “typical Westminster argument that bears no relation to the lives of ordinary people.”  "In this context," continued Anthony, "the Conservative drop in support doesn’t seem particularly surprising - they’ve switched from attacking the government over huge levels of debt and mishandling the economy, to battering away over an issue which apparently has barely any salience with the general public."

My shadow cabinet source said that the Tory leadership's continued reluctance to talk about immigration combined with the powerful movement within the Conservative Party that worries about infringements of liberty dictated the tactical path that was chosen:

"What happened to Damian Green was unacceptable and authoritarian but it would have been much better politics to have seen this as an issue of immigration and then moved more quickly back to the dominant economic narrative."

There are lessons in the weeks and months ahead for the Conservative Party.  The Party has too many messages at the moment.  It needs to have the discipline to pick a few key themes and focus upon them relentlessly.  My shadow cabinet source said those three messages should be:

1. The scale of public debt - personalised for every person in Britain;
2. The scale of Labour incompetence - these people can't run anything;
3. The scale of Labour deceit - big tax rises are coming;

Tim Montgomerie

IDS warns that failed asylum seekers are being forced into prostitution

In one of its most controversial reports the Centre for Social Justice will today call for failed asylum seekers to receive support or be allowed to work. 

The think tank founded by Iain Duncan Smith and directed by Philippa Stroud argues that current rules are forcing failed asylum seekers underground, including into prostitution.

Speaking on this morning's Today programme the former Tory leader said that compassion and effectiveness were not alternatives.  By treating asylum seekers badly Mr Duncan Smith said the system was failing everyone.  Only one-in-five failed asylum seekers to the UK return voluntarily to their home countries compared to four-in-five in nations like Sweden.  The cost of a forced return is £11,000; ten times greater than a voluntary return.

IDS issued this statement:

"The British government is using forced destitution as a means of encouraging people to leave voluntarily. It is a failed policy. UK policy is still driven by the thesis, clearly falsified, that we can encourage people to leave by being nasty. The result is that we rely heavily on forcible return, which is both very costly and time-consuming, and engages only a small proportion of those whose claims are refused. This system gives refused asylum seekers good reason to abscond and little reason to engage with officialdom."

The report issued by the CSJ calls for comprehensive changes to Britain's asylum seekers including much more investment in early processing and appeal of cases.  It is a very persuasive read.

Tim Montgomerie

The "judicial intimidation" of Damian Green

Lots of posts last night so I thought I'd try and summarise what we know in one post:

What happened?  Damian Green was arrested yesterday and his Kent and House of Commons offices searched by nine counter-intelligence officers.  Mr Green spent nine hours in custody but has not been charged. He was apparently under investigation for handling four leaks of Home Office information on matters relating to the Government's record on immigration.

Why?  The authorities may have wanted to frighten Mr Green. They may have wanted to frighten all civil servants and MPs and stop the increasing regularity of leaks from Whitehall.

Mr Green has the Tory leadership's support: David Cameron is standing by Mr Green and is "very angry" at what some Tories are describing as "Stalinesque" behaviour by the authorities.  "Stalinesque" might be thought to imply suspicion of Gordon Brown's involvement but his office were very quick to deny involvement.  As Greg Hands has noted, however, it was a typical Brownian denial - not absolving him comprehensively from involvement.

When did ministers know?  This is now one of the most important questions.  Even if Brown didn't know when did the Home Secretary know?  Given that Boris Johnson and others received prior warnings - but were unable to act - it seems very unlikely that a Home Office Minister (who did have the power to stop the police and may have even had to sanction what happened) did not have prior knowledge.  Such is the reputation of this Government, few are likely to believe ministers' denials anyway.  If Jacqui Smith did know she should resign.

Why were counter-terrorism powers used?  This seems to be yet another example of their misuse.  As David Davis told Today, this had nothing to do with terrorism and comes close to "judicial intimidation".

MPs will be outraged at the police searching one of their colleague's offices: There is something worryingly undemocratic about the police entering an MP's Commons office and undertaking a search.  There is probably no coincidence in the fact that parliament wasn't sitting yesterday.  As Iain Dale noted in a superb post, if MPs had been sitting many might have "physically barred" the police's way.

Many, many MPs receive leaks: As the BBC's Norman Smith told Today listeners at about 6.30am if every MP who had been passed confidential information was arrested the Commons would be half-empty.  Jim Naughtie himself noted that Brown made his early reputation by receiving numerous leaked documents from inside Whitehall.  There's extraordinary hypocrisy here - not least from a Government that couldn't/ wouldn't keep its own Pre-Budget Report secret over last weekend. 

This is another PR disaster for the Government: It's not just the BBC that is incredulous.  The Daily Mail leads with the story and as the beneficiary of some of the leaks is going to be very sympathetic to Mr Green.  There are few areas of Labour's record that exhibit more incompetence that its record on immigration.  The public are unlikely to have sympathy with attempts to hide, for example, the fact that 5,000 illegal workers were cleared for security details.  That story is reportedly one of Damian Green's leaks and a very clear example of whistleblowing in the public interest.

Britain is not Zimbabwe: Yesterday's events were deeply worrying but Britain is not Zimbabwe and we must be careful about suggesting otherwise.  To do so risks insulting the suffering of women like Memory.  As Robert H Halfon has previously blogged: We must not trivialise real evil.

Tim Montgomerie

When did ministers know?

Newsnight reports that Boris Johnson was told of the police's intention to arrest Damian Green and objected.

That must mean the Home Secretary was also told and did nothing to stop the heavy-handed policy sting.  Unlike Boris, Jacqui Smith had the power to stop the sting.

Ben Brogan blogs that Brown knew nothing of this.  The Tory use of the term "Stalinesque" to describe today's events might suggest they think otherwise.

ConservativeHome's view: Damian Green was acting in public interest

The above story - click here - detailing the breakdown in security that has stemmed from Labour's failure to control our borders is one very good reason why Damian Green was certainly acting in the public interest when he received information of a confidential nature from within Whitehall.  Much is still unconfirmed but this - ConHome is being told - is one of the stories resulting from Damian Green's source(s).

There is also something extraordinarily over-the-top in how nine counter-intelligence officers were involved in today's operation against Damian Green.

And why today when Parliament has gone into temporary recess before the Queen's Speech?  Did the Government want to avoid awkward parliamentary questions?

Tim Montgomerie

11pm: Alistair Burt MP has left this (verified) comment:

"This man is my friend whom I have known for over thirty years. A more conscientious and public spirited politician you could not hope to find. I hope the Goverment has good lawyers to defend itself in due course, because Damian's friends will take them to the cleaners if he does not. When we think about the deception and deceit which has characterised this Government, the arrest of an Opposition politician just takes the biscuit. A step too far. We now have to remove not just a useless Government, but a dangerous one. And you can quote me."

Cameron "supportive" of Damian Green and angry at "Stalinesque" treatment of him

Damian Green was arrested in Kent. Taken into London to be interviewed by Met.

DG is saying his actions in exposing the Government's record on immigration were manifestly in public interest.

He denies any wrongdoing and stands by his actions.

The authorities' actions are being described by Tory sources as "Stalinesque" citing the fact that nine couter-terrorism police officers were involved in interviewing DG and searching his Kent home and Commons offices.

It is being said that it is "inconceivable" that Government itself weren't involved in authorising today's behaviour by police.

David Cameron said to be fully supportive of Damian Green and angry at today's events.

Tim Montgomerie

Dominic Grieve: Labour's left it too late to get a grip on immigration

Writing for the Evening Standard today, Dominic Grieve strongly criticises Labour's approach to immigration since 1997, noting the problems it has created. He argues that if Labour has now finally come to a more realistic view, it is only through finally heeding Conservative arguments they have been ignoring for years. Labour has no credibility remaining on the issue.

It is notable that prior to joining the Shadow Cabinet this summer, Dominic Grieve worked as hard or harder than any Conservative MP (notably with Christina Dykes) to build a stronger relationship between the Conservatives and ethnic minority groups. His strong words on this issue therefore carry particular credibility.

Labour's record of failure: "Net immigration has quadrupled under Labour, fuelled both by the lack of transitional controls on new EU member states and a failure to control economic migration from outside the EU. Britain is on course to have the largest population in the EU, with the Office for National Statistics predicting that half of this surge will come from immigration... A YouGov poll last year found that the public regarded the failure to control immigration as Tony Blair's greatest failure in office."

Immigration makes only the most marginal contribution to GDP per head: "The Government has consistently overstated the economic advantages by emphasising only the contribution of newcomers to overall GDP, when, as the Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs points out, it is the impact on GDP per person that counts, and immigration has had only the most marginal impact on that measure."

Labour adopt another Tory policy

The 4pm news bulletin on BBC Radio Five Live reported Immigration Minister Phil Woolas' suggestion that the number of people coming into Britain needed to be limited given Britain's difficult economic circumstances.  The newsreader went on to say that the Tories said that Labour were copying Tory policy.  It is beyond question that Labour is copying Tory policy.  Damian Green and David Davis were proposing limits on immigration from outside the EU nearly two years ago.  It would have been more accurate if the BBC had simply said: The Conservatives proposed such a limit on immigration two years ago.

PS We won't hold our breath waiting for Labour to implement any limit.

Tory split in London Assembly over illegal immigrant amnesty

The Guardian reports a motion that passed through the London Assembly today with a 12-5 majority. Four of the eleven Tory Assembly Members voted in favour of the motion backing the idea of London-wide amnesty for illegal immigrants. The remaining votes in favour came from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens.

Four Conservatives AM voted against: the group leader Roger Evans, Tony Arbour, Gareth Bacon and Richard Tracey. The deputy mayor Richard Barnes formally abstained and two other Conservatives are reported to have left the chamber prior to the vote.

The proposal to call for an amnesty from central government was adopted by Boris Johnson during his campaign to be Mayor, in a departure from national party policy.  More recently it was advocated by the Mayor's new head of policy.

14 October update: The original Guardian story - which appears to have been edited - reported some Tory, Labour, Lib Dem and Green members voting in favour, with four Tories voting against and three abstaining or leaving the chamber. No official record is kept by the London Assembly to confirm this, but we are told (see comments) that in fact rather than voting in favour, the remaining four Tories who did not vote against, abstain or leave the chamber, were not present to vote in the first place.

Boris' new head of policy calls for amnesty for illegal immigrants

Anthony Browne, the outgoing director of Policy Exchange, has written for today's Independent - backing what he admits is a "politically dynamite" case for an amnesty for illegal immigrants.  Mr Browne is about to join the Mayor of London's office, as head of policy.  Boris Johnson himself backed an amnesty during the mayoral race - a position that puts him at odds with David Cameron.

In his piece for The Independent Mr Browne notes estimates that there are 400,000 illegal immigrants in the UK; largely in the south east of England.  There are, he writes, three options to deal with this problem:

1. Mass deportation: Mr Browne dismisses this as very expensive and unrealistic; "No country that sees itself as civilised wants to send immigration officials into schools, yanking distraught children away from their distressed classmates."
2. Accept the status quo: But this prevents a huge number of people from becoming fully participating members of society.
3. An amnesty: Mr Browne believes that this is the best option and will benefit the long-term productivity of the UK economy.  He calls for an "earned amnesty" for those who have been resident in the UK for a short number of years and haven't been found guilty of any criminal offences.

The most common objection to an amnesty is that it will only encourage further illegal immigration.  Spain, for example, has granted six amnesties.  The first amnesty twenty years ago granted residency to 44,000 people.  The most recent and sixth amnesty - in 2005 - involved 700,000 immigrants.  Anthony Browne says this can be avoided by doing much more to protect Britain's borders.

> There is an extended profile of Policy Exchange in The Guardian, including an interview with its new Director, Neil O'Brien.

Strong policy on immigration could deliver political realignment for Conservatives

A few weeks ago we set out how the Conservative Party might achieve something bigger than victory at the next General Election; realignment.

A new YouGov poll this morning shows that a strong policy on immigration could help deliver this change in long-term political allegiance:

• "81% of Labour voters want to see a substantial reduction in current immigration numbers.  Of those, 36% think that Balanced Migration is about the right level, but the other 45% think even that is too high.
• 83% of Liberal Democrats want to see much lower immigration.  Of these, 43% support Balanced Migration, while 40% believe the limit should be even lower.
• 89% of Conservatives want a sharp reduction in immigration.  Of these, 23% support Balanced Migration, while 66% want even tougher limits.
• Among BME respondents, 75% wanted much lower immigration, of whom 36% supported Balanced Migration and 39% wanted even tougher limits.
• The poll also showed that 33%of the electorate were more likely to vote Conservative if David Cameron were to adopt Balanced Migration as a policy; only 5% would be less likely to support him – a net gain of 28%."

The poll was carried out for MigrationWatch; readers' campaigning organisation of the year.

The survey coincides with a call by a cross-party group, marshalled by MigrationWatch, for a policy of "balanced migration".  Such a policy would mean that the number of people given permission to settle permanently in Britain (not including temporary migrant workers) would equal the number of citizens emigrating.

The group includes Frank Field MP, Nicholas Soames MP, Lord Carey and Lord Ahmed.  According to the Daily Mail the policy "would produce a UK population of around 65million by 2050 - compared to projections of 78.6million under Government policies."

Lord Stevens' border protection report launched

David Cameron, Dominic Grieve and Damian Green joined former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens at City Airport today to look around the airport and launch his report on border protection. In February last year the Conservatives announced their intention to create a Border Protection Service and this report looked into how this might be done. Click here to download it.

It recommends that a proper Border Police Force should bring together the four principal existing border services - including parts of the police and Revenue and Customs, as well as the Border and Immigration Agency, UK Visas and the security section of the Department of Transport - under a single, "uniformed and unified" unit of 30000 officers and civilian staff. The force will have the power to stop (through armed intervention if necessary), search, detain and prosecute those smugglers, terrorists, traffickers and illegal immigrants who currently slip through the net.

The Labour Government did introduce a pale imitation of this proposal but it didn't include the police or have the extra powers required to enforce border security. Passport inspectors got new uniforms though.

Stephen Crabb MP questions Jacqui Smith's openness to deporting gay Iranian asylum seekers

Conservative MP Stephen Crabb, Chairman of the Conservative Party's Human Rights Commission, has criticised the Home Secretary for arguing that Iran is safe for "discreet" homosexuals:

"Most fair-minded people will be appalled at the Home Secretary's statement. The Iranian regime has a dreadful track-record when it comes to the treatment of homosexuals and other minority groups and is more than willing to use torture and the death sentence to punish offenders.

Asking minorities to live their lives discreetly is to give in to the tyrants and bullies who sustain their positions through fear and coerced conformity.  It demonstrates both an unelevated view of the importance of human rights and cowardice in championing our own system of values."

In this morning's Independent the Home Secretary is quoted as saying that asylum seekers to the UK can be deported if they live discreet lives.  The trouble is - if they don't - they can be hanged, as in the photo on the right.  An estimated 4,000 Iranians have been executed over the last twenty years.

The treatment of gay men in Iraq came to prominence earlier this year when Mehdi Kazemi was threatened with deportation to Tehran - even after his boyfriend had been executed.  Conor Burns wrote about it at the time for CentreRight.com.

This Labour Government is often 'tough' when it shouldn't be - as here - and 'soft' when it shouldn't be - illegal immigration more generally.  Without commenting on individual cases it would be good to see Dominic Grieve taking up this general issue.

Grayling targets English language skills of unemployed minorities

In a speech today Chris Grayling, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, will lay much of the blame for Britain's large pool of unemployed, unskilled labour on Gordon Brown's immigration policies:

"I think Gordon Brown has used the influx of migrant workers as a way of ducking the issue of welfare reform, and as a result, has left millions of people stranded in poverty who could and should have been helped back to work over the last decade. After all his rhetoric on poverty, he has failed to deliver the sea change he has promised. And immigration has provided him with a safety net for the economic impact of that failure."

Mr Grayling will also target the high proportion of UK ethnic minorities who are out of work.  "Speaking English," reports The Telegraph, "will be an "essential" requirement, with job centres and voluntary groups offering language lessons to those whose prospects are hampered by an inability to communicate."

Young people will be required to attend employment 'boot camps' after three months on benefits.  Mr Grayling will speak to the Centre for Policy Studies later today and is expected to say: "There is no excuse for a young, able-bodied person to be outside the labour force."

These latest announcements follow a series of other welfare reform proposals in January.  Savings from reducing welfare dependency will be ploughed into eliminating the couple penalty in the benefits system - a penalty that discourages poorer parents from living together.

Campaigner of the Year: MigrationWatch

Today we reveal the latest winner of the 2007/08 conservative movement awards - as voted for by more than 8,000 readers.  The winner of the Campaigner of the Year is MigrationWatch.  Runners up were the TaxPayers' Alliance and No2ID.

Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of MigrationWatch, sent us this statement:

"As a voluntary organisation, we are much encouraged to receive this vote of confidence from your members.   It is perhaps no accident that it coincides with some recent hostility from certain sections of the press as will be apparent from our web site."

MigrationWatch do not have quite the press exposure of the TaxPayers' Alliance but the issue of immigration often scores higher in polls of most important issues to voters.  Most parties are now looking to implement tougher migration policies.  No party is offering serious tax relief.  In the years ahead the work of the TaxPayers' Alliance is going to be very important.

Cameron condemns Ed Balls' "crazy" attack on faith schools

Just interviewed by Adam Boulton for his Sunday Live programme, Tory leader David Cameron attacked Ed Balls' confrontation with faith schools as "crazy".  Some of the best schools in the country were faith schools, he said, and under the Conservatives they could expand if parents wished.

Mr Cameron also told Sky viewers that he supported tighter classification of cannabis.  He admitted that he was wrong to support the relaxation of classification when he was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee.  The potency of cannabis as used today and its mental health side-effects had, he said, persuaded him to support a tougher approach.

Mr Cameron said he did not agree with Boris Johnson on an amnesty for illegal immigrants.  The danger, he said, was that one anmesty only encouraged more immigration and further amnesties.

He declined to pick a candidate for the US Presidential race but heaped praise on John McCain as an inspiring man who was on the right side of the free trade debate.

The Conservative leader said that he was encouraged by the latest opinion poll putting the Conservatives 11% ahead of Labour but that there was "not an ounce of complacency" within the Tory team about the outcome of the next General Election.  Voters were weary of a great new dawn after jumping into Blair's arms in 1997.  The Conservatives need to show that they had the right response to Britain's two great challenges: economic uncertainty and social breakdown.

PS Why on earth did Sky bother to ask the public for questions to put to Mr Cameron?  55 questions were left on the Boulton & Co blog but only one of those questions was asked by our reckoning.