Thread by @BloomfieldSJ

Anyone who thinks the centre-left needs to “get a handle on immigration” in order to defeat the rise of the far-right clearly hasn’t heard of New Labour. Let's take a short journey through the 90s and 2000s...

theguardian.com/world/2018/nov…

Under Tony Blair, New Labour passed five migration-related bills between 1997 and 2007—that’s more than in any other policy area. Each one was about making it harder for refugees and immigrants to live here.

In 2000, Labour removed benefits from asylum seekers and instead gave them vouchers, which could only be spent on what the government deemed “essential”.

Imagine the shame of handing over tokens rather than cash at the checkout. The indignity of being told by the cashier “no, this razor isn’t essential”. The pain of not receiving any change, regardless of how little of your voucher you’ve used.

The T&G union called it a “humiliation”. The Runnymede Trust accused Labour of creating “statelessness and racial and ethnic divisions”. Jack Straw didn't care

This was the period where Labour liked to split asylum seekers up into “genuine” and “bogus”. The phrase “bogus asylum seeker” became so prevalent it was even used, without quotes marks, in this BBC news report: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi…

In 2002, the new home secretary David Blunkett warned of children of asylum seekers “swamping” schools and introduced a bill banning them from attending. He was accused by the Refugee Council of “appeasing the views of racists and bigots”

In 2003, Blunkett gave an interview to the Sun in which he vowed “tough measures to crack down on asylum cheats”.

So, what impact did all this have? “Swamping”, “asylum cheats”, “bogus asylum seekers”, ever more restrictive and aggressive policies? According to a 2003 Ipsos Mori poll, of those who thought immigration was important, 10% said Labour had the best policies; 36% the Tories

But New Labour doubled down. In 2005, in Dover no less, Blair, made a speech where he accused asylum seekers of “playing the system”.

Blair’s speech is well worth reading in full. Paragraphs and paragraphs outlining how Labour has been “tougher” on immigration than the Tories. (theguardian.com/politics/2005/…)

The Tories “voted to restore benefits to asylum seekers in 1999 and argued against our proposals to remove support from families whose claimed were rejected.”

Yep, Tony Blair, a Labour prime minister, is making this boast about how “soft” the Tories are.

Immigration was a key theme in the 2005 election. “Clarke to toughen rules on immigration,” was the Telegraph headline. “New curbs on immigration,” screamed the Standard.

“What is wrong is when… people are coming here who are a burden on the society." Charles Clarke, Labour home secretary, 2005

How did the voters respond? In April 2005, Ipsos Mori again asked which party people thought had the best policies on immigration. Labour’s support had barely risen from 10% to 11%. The Tories had gone from 36% to 53%.

Surely though, now the issue was solved, no? Well, no. Here’s John Reid—the new Home Secretary—in 2006 signalling “an end to immigration free-for-all”
standard.co.uk/news/john-reid…

March 2007: “Reid targets illegal immigration,” says the BBC. He claimed that "foreigners come to this country illegitimately and steal our benefits"
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi…

That’s a genuine quote from New Labour’s home secretary: "foreigners come to this country illegitimately and steal our benefits"

Another year, another new home secretary. “Jacqui Smith launches immigration crackdown,” says the Telegraph in 2008. telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/la…

Is any of this working? Surely, if Hilary Clinton is right, this “tough” language would have made a difference. No, no it didn’t.

Ipsos Mori’s poll in 2008 showed that now just 5%—FIVE PER CENT—of voters who thought immigration was important trusted Labour. The Conservatives were on 46%.

New Labour, to quote Hillary Clinton, *did* “get a handle on immigration”. They locked people up, left others destitute and talked about asylum seekers and migrants as if they were scum.

And where did this lead us? Record votes for Ukip, Brexit and the normalisation of far-right arguments on immigration.

ENDS

P.S. Please do reply with anything else you find. These were the bits I could remember