Labour has been accused of rank hypocrisy over plans to uphold controversial Tory proposals to detain child migrants in its bid to crack down on cross-Channel smuggling gangs.
Despite Labour frontbenchers repeatedly speaking out against the Conservatives’ Illegal Migration Act (IMA), Yvette Cooper is pressing ahead with plans to allow unaccompanied children whose age is disputed by the Home Office to be detained.
In Labour’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, published on Thursday, the home secretary will also keep a ban on migrants claiming modern slavery protections, along with a string of other measures the party previously opposed.
Amnesty International accused Ms Cooper of “rank hypocrisy” for holding on to parts of the Tories’ bill, a decision it said would signal that “disdain for human beings remains at the heart of this government”. Independent anti-slavery commissioner Eleanor Lyons said victims of modern slavery “deserve our compassion and support, and no new legislation should reduce victims’ rights”.
Labour MP Sarah Champion called for the government to ensure the safety of victims of slavery, as well as urging the government to “think very carefully about child protection”.
“I was hoping this bill would disentangle human trafficking from people-smuggling once and for all”, the former shadow home office minister told The Independent.
“Rather than restricting survivors’ ability to claim slavery protections, we should be ensuring their safety.
“We also need to think very carefully about child protection. We know child asylum seekers are a particularly vulnerable group, with hundreds of children going missing over the years. Their care and wellbeing should be a primary concern.”
Meanwhile, Tory shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the bill was “weak and reannounces steps the last government took already”.
Labour’s Jess Phillips – who now sits in Sir Keir Starmer’s government as safeguarding minister – previously claimed that the Conservative bill was “a trafficker’s dream, a tool for their control”, as it effectively hid modern slavery victims from UK authorities.
And former shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock, now a health minister, said it is “deeply unethical, as it also makes it harder for victims of modern slavery to come forward and [makes it] harder to prosecute criminals”. Mr Kinnock branded the bill a “traffickers’ charter, a gift to traffickers and pimps”.
Dame Diana Johnson, now a minister in the Home Office, previously accused the Tory government of making an “unnecessary and unjustified” choice to sacrifice its focus on human trafficking as part of its response to irregular migration. None of the three has responded to The Independent’s request for comment on the U-turn.
The Tory bill meant that victims of human trafficking who enter the UK on small boats will not be able to get help via the UK’s national referral mechanism – the system for supporting and identifying victims. But Home Office officials stressed that Labour’s bill repeals provisions that would have banned those people from accessing it. They said migrant victims of modern slavery who are in need of support will be able to access it, regardless of their method of arrival.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who sits as an independent MP after being suspended by Labour, said: “It is beyond me why Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper have done a complete reversal of our position prior to the election, [which saw us] vehemently opposing the Conservatives’ policy of detaining children.
“I remember when children were detained at Harmondsworth detention centre in my constituency, and it is harmful and can have a lasting impact on the lives of these children. I am so anxious now that in government we appear to be losing all sense of compassion.”
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said she was shocked that Labour was keeping in place measures that Labour frontbenchers had previously opposed.
She told The Independent that the UK should be supporting those who come here in search of safety and want to rebuild their lives and be reunited with loved ones.
She said: “The only way to stop people-smugglers is to create safe routes for people to come here fleeing violence or war, but this government’s new bill contains no measures to do so.
“I very much hope that all those who spoke with their consciences when these cruel measures were introduced by the last government will continue to do so now.”
The bill is intended to target the gangs smuggling tens of thousands of migrants across the English Channel every year, and includes a slew of powers the government hopes will help break the business model of the smugglers.
But experts have warned that plans to deny some victims of human trafficking access to government help could be incompatible with UK and international law, and that this will embolden criminals.
Responding to Labour’s bill, Amnesty International refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said: “It is less than two years since Yvette Cooper stood in parliament to oppose the Illegal Migration Act 2023 in its entirety, including because under it, victims of modern-day slavery would be left without any protections.
“Choosing to now keep this act, or any part of it, to hammer rather than safeguard adults and children who’ve suffered the trauma of human trafficking, torture and war, would be rank hypocrisy.”
And Jakub Sobik, from the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre, said that keeping this legislation risks “increasing trafficking and modern slavery in the UK”.
He added: “If implemented, [this bill] would deny potentially thousands of people protection from trafficking, and would strengthen the hand of traffickers as well as [impeding] our ability to prosecute traffickers.”
In a bid to avoid attacks from Reform UK and the Conservatives, Labour is also retaining the cap on the number of migrants who can arrive each year via safe and legal routes.
Under the bill, people-smuggling suspects will face travel bans and social media blackouts as part of an attempt to crack down on organised immigration crime.
Court orders to restrict the activity of those under investigation for such crimes will be strengthened, with suspects being banned from using laptops or mobile phones, accessing social media networks, associating with certain people, or accessing their finances, under the measures announced by the Home Office.
Serious crime prevention orders (SCPOs) can already be sought to curb the movement of people involved in organised immigration crime. But the government said the measures are not being used to their full effect, and plans to introduce new “interim” SCPOs that are designed to place “immediate” restrictions on a suspect’s activity while a full order is considered by the court.
Under powers inspired by counterterrorism laws, immigration officers and police will also be given the power to seize phones, laptops and other electronic devices from migrants arriving in the UK without arresting them first. Officials said this will help officers gather intelligence on the gangs running the people-smuggling trade.
The section of the IMA covering detention, which is being upheld by Labour, is not targeted specifically at unaccompanied child migrants. And the Tories’ previous plans on 28-day detention limits have been repealed by Labour, The Independent understands.
Conservative shadow home secretary Mr Philp said: “This is a weak bill from a weak government. It reannounces steps the last government took already, and beyond that only engages in minor tinkering – for example, about taking phones from illegal immigrants when they arrive. That won’t stop the boats.”
But Labour’s new Border Security commander Martin Hewitt said the bill would “equip teams on the ground and empower them to go further and faster when dismantling organised criminality”.
He said: “These crucial measures will underpin our enforcement action across the system, and together with our strengthened relationships with international partners, we will bring down these gangs once and for all.”
Announcing the bill, Ms Cooper said: “Over the last six years, criminal smuggling gangs have been allowed to take hold all along our borders, making millions out of small-boat crossings.
“This bill will equip our law enforcement agencies with the powers they need to stop these vile criminals, disrupting their supply chains and bringing more of those who profit from human misery to justice.
“These new counterterror-style powers, including making it easier to seize mobile phones at the border, along with statutory powers for our new Border Security Command to focus activity across law enforcement agencies and Border Force, will turbocharge efforts to smash the gangs. “
