,
6 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
The #immigrationbill being debated today is not fit for purpose. I will vote against it because it undermines the #citizensrights of 3.6m EU citizens in the UK, threatening to put many under the hostile environment and making them at risk of detention and deportation.
It will force our NHS and other vital services into an even deeper staffing crisis. There are already 41,000 nursing vacancies in England. The salary threshold still under consideration would exclude many skilled medical staff, including nurses, paramedics and midwives.
It continues the inhumane practice of indefinite detention. We remain the only European country which does not set a time limit for detained migrants. This sullies our international reputation and undermines complaints we make about human rights abuses abroad.
The 1.2 million @BritishInEurope will inevitably see their own rights eroded too. Overnight they could lose their ability to live and work freely in Europe. Young people who overwhelming want the chance to live across the continent are having their horizons permanently narrowed.
I am very disappointed the Labour party is planning to abstain on the Immigration Bill. We should champion, celebrate and defend migrant rights and this bill - which comes from the most xenophobic British government in decades - severely undermines them.
I'm pleased that we are now voting against the government's Immigration Bill, but more than a little surprised we were planning to abstain on such a big issue in the first place.
