Learning Lessons: Wrong Path

This is the tenth part of our ‘Learning Lessons’ series, which provides a space for candidates across England, Scotland and Wales to share what they heard on the doorstep and where they believe Labour should go next

Labour needs to reclaim our values of honesty and fairness in our approach to asylum and refugee policy. By so doing we can win back the trust of voters who have fled to the Greens and Reform and do right by those fleeing persecution.

There were some early positive moves under former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper – she scrapped the Rwanda deal, started to process asylum claims again and signalled a move away from the expensive privatised model of asylum seeker housing by announcing a pilot investment in local authorities to provide housing. These measures, combined with our manifesto commitment to close asylum seeker hotels, have the potential to save billions of pounds, end the chaos in the system and ensure those seeking refuge in the UK are afforded basic dignity. As a result of Cooper’s measures the backlog has been slashed to 49,000 at the end of 2025, 63 per cent lower than the 2022 peak. Cooper’s one-in-one-out policy also had the wisdom to recognise (as Home Office statistics confirm) that historically most undocumented arrivals have grounds to make a claim.

But we have taken some catastrophically wrong turns in the past year. Shabana Mahmood’s policy programme is the worst of all worlds, causing harm to individuals caught up in the system while simultaneously contributing to our political collapse at the local elections. The evidence – from the doorstep and the recent local elections – is that Labour switchers to the Greens have enabled Reform wins. Twenty-two per cent of our 2024 voters voted Green at the recent local elections, while only 6 per cent went to Reform. And I know from countless conversations with former Labour voters that our policy and rhetoric on asylum is one factor driving people towards the Greens. On the doorstep in Brighton and at council meetings, black and minority ethnic residents and staff have told me that the party’s endless stream of social media videos of black and brown people being handcuffed and deported makes them feel less physically safe.

But crude social media campaigns are not the only reason we stand accused of fuelling racism and undermining Labour values. Recent policy announcements are also to blame. Purely practically, they also contradict our stated aims and risk making a bad situation worse: we say we want to ‘stop the boats’, yet policy after policy – from ending refugee family reunion to penalising universities whose students make asylum applications – increases the likelihood of more boat crossings by shutting down the very few existing ‘safe and legal’ routes, especially for more vulnerable groups like women and children. And the ending of permanent refugee status – which means those we have legally recognised as having endured some of the worst abuses – torture, gang rape, medieval style persecution – will never be able to start meaningfully rebuilding their lives, instead forever waiting for the knock at the door. All while adding hundreds of millions of pounds to the asylum bill to administer the pointless scheme

A recent Home Office consultation proposes banning local authorities from providing food vouchers to families who have had their asylum claim rejected. This means that even in circumstances where emaciated children present at town halls, a Labour Government is proposing to stop local government providing subsistence. The consultation also proposes sanctioning the use of force to deport children with no lower age limit. These are not Labour policies. Such a programme means that voters disbelieve us when we claim to be in a battle with Reform for the soul of country – believing instead that we have actually capitulated to them. No-one votes Labour to starve kids or use force on them. And evidence suggests that proper investment in case working to support voluntary family return yields better results anyway.

By the same token, some of our supposed ‘tough’ policies perversely intensify people’s sense of grievance. By refusing to allow people seeking asylum to work and pay their way, we give the far-right a stick to beat us with. Preventing people seeking asylum from working legally – sometimes for years on end – creates a highly visible symbol of unfairness to settled residents who ask why asylum seekers hanging around the town centre get three hot meals a day while others who work hard to pay their way struggle to put food on the table. It also means that when almost half of all asylum applications are granted at initial decision, we end up tipping newly recognised refugees straight into homelessness and welfare claims as their asylum benefits are withdrawn before they have been able to find work or housing. Again, fuelling the far right narrative that refugees place a disproportionate and unacceptable burden on the state. As the party of working people, we must recognise the value and dignity of work regardless of whether someone has a pending asylum case. Granting the right to work would de-escalate community tensions, aid better integration, reduce the benefits bill and boost economic growth.

Stopping the boats is a valid political objective. The sight of disorderly arrivals has stoked public anxiety. But the current political strategy and policy programme does not deliver this outcome, instead overpromising, underdelivering and creating an existential crisis for the party as we haemorrhage votes to both the plastic progressives and the plastic patriots.

The Labour way forward is through international cooperation. A coalition of the willing to reshape internation asylum policy under the Refugee Convention, allowing those facing persecution to apply for asylum without making dangerous boat journeys and working towards a fair and equitable sharing of responsibilities that is orderly and managed.

We need an urgent change of direction.

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