By Zuri Omer
Labour’s new asylum plans mark a significant escalation of racist policy in Britain. Instead of reversing the brutality of the Tory years, the government has chosen to intensify it. The direction of travel is unmistakable. Labour is constructing an asylum regime designed to keep people in a permanent state of insecurity, and in several respects its proposals stretch beyond the Danish model it openly admires. This represents a serious retreat from the democratic rights that were previously understood to be universal.
Shabana Mahmood has presented a framework in which no one seeking refuge in Britain can expect stability. People who escape war or repression will be allowed to remain only on a temporary, heavily policed basis. They will be summoned for periodic reassessment and reminded that their future in the country can be cancelled whenever the Home Office decides that circumstances elsewhere have changed. Families who have tried to build a life here could be broken up without warning. In place of safety, the government intends to impose a situation where refugees live with continual anxiety over their status.
One of the most disturbing elements of the reforms is the plan to demand contributions from asylum seekers by taking personal belongings considered to have monetary value. While Denmark introduced a similar practice years ago, the British proposals apply this logic to far larger groups of people, including families and children, and form part of a wider dismantling of rights. Labour is not simply replicating the Danish system. It is constructing a harsher one that treats the basic necessities of life as a privilege contingent on payment.
The government insists that these policies are required to restore public confidence. This argument depends on the false premise that refugees are responsible for social tensions rather than the years of austerity, cuts and deliberate political scapegoating imposed from above. In presenting asylum seekers as a threat, Labour repeats narratives long promoted by the far right. This is why Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson rushed to praise Mahmood’s approach. They recognise that Labour is adopting their political framework.
Labour claims that it is neutralising the far right. The real effect is the opposite. When a governing party accepts racist myths, it confirms that these myths are legitimate grounds for policymaking. This strengthens the forces that built their politics on these themes.
The consequences for refugees will be severe. People who arrived in Britain seeking protection will be forced to navigate an environment shaped by surveillance, distrust and the ever-present threat of expulsion. Children who have begun their education here may find their lives uprooted with little notice. Instead of integration, the government is creating a system that keeps refugees isolated, fearful and unable to rebuild their lives.
Charities, refugee groups and sections of the labour movement have already raised the alarm. Labour’s insistence that harshness is required to maintain credibility reveals a political strategy based on conceding ground to racism rather than challenging it. A party that claims to defend equality cannot implement policies that rely on treating entire groups of people as undeserving of basic security.
Stand Up To Racism has called an emergency demonstration outside the Home Office this Wednesday (6pm 19 November). It will be an important moment for those who reject Labour’s turn toward racist policies and who refuse to allow the far right to set the direction of national politics. The message must be clear. Refugees are welcome here. We oppose Labour’s attempt to mimic Reform’s agenda. And we will continue to build a movement capable of defending the rights and dignity of everyone who lives in this country.