Labour has defended its controversial migration plans after allegations the party is aping Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle said the government is simply “enforcing the rules” by publishing videos of immigration raids targeting illegal workers.
The films have been criticised by human rights groups and MPs for being melodramatic, with the Refugee Council saying the government was using performative stunts to try to promote division.
And, pressed on the plans on Monday morning, Dame Angela denied Labour was seeking to copy Reform and said the government was showing those that “aspire to come to this country illegally” they will be caught.
It comes after the party launched advertisements in Reform’s distinctive turqoise claiming to have hit a five-year high in migrant removals.
Veteran Labour left-winger Diane Abbott wrote in The Independent that Labour was playing “a mug’s game” in following Mr Farage on migration.
Dame Angela was asked by Times Radio if the crackdown is an attempt to counter the threat of Reform, saying: “No that's not why we're doing it. There are rules and laws in the UK about who can come in and work, who can come in legally and work.
“What we are doing is enforcing the rules and if people who aspire to come to this country illegally think that it's easy for them to come in and get work then we are showing the world that that is not accurate, it's wrong.”
But Green Party leader Carla Denyer accused Labour of “plumbing new depths with their plan to broadcast footage of people being detained and deported”.
She added: “Those involved should be searching their consciences to ask if such breathtaking cruelty is really worth it all for the sake of aping the rhetoric of Reform.
“The bitter irony is that following Reform to the right on migration won’t win Labour any support – it will only lend legitimacy to Reform’s extreme views. It’s time this government showed a bit of backbone and told the truth – that migration is good for this country.”
It comes after Techne UK’s weekly tracker for The Independent put Labour and Reform equal top with 25 per cent and the Tories two points behind on 23 per cent.
On the same day, FindOutNow put Reform top with 29 per cent, 11 points ahead of the Tories on 18 per cent in third and four ahead of Labour on 25 per cent.
Dame Angela also failed to rule out doing a deal with Reform UK, but dismissed the question as “utterly hypothetical”.
Asked if Labour would ever do a deal with Reform if there was a hung parliament, Dame Angela said: "I think that is so utterly hypothetical. It's a ludicrous question."
Pressed again, the Home Office minister added: “We have got a very healthy majority, we've got a manifesto to put into effect and that is what we are busy doing.
“And what we're doing today, with these crackdowns on immigration and enforcement ahead of the border security bill which is getting its second reading in the House of Commons this afternoon, is getting on and delivering our plan for change.”
The Labour Party’s plan will see it publish videos of raids on migrants accused of working illegally in Britain as well as photographs of deportation flights.
Thousands of migrants allegedly working illegally in nail bars, car washes and restaurants have been arrested as part of the government’s efforts to tighten UK border security.
The eelease of the footage is part of a crackdown on those entering the country illegally, but echoes similar initiatives by Rishi Sunak’s Tory government that were criticised by Labour and migrant charities.
The raids are being publicised as home secretary Yvette Cooper’s landmark Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill returns to parliament for its second reading in the Commons on Monday.
The Conservative Party is also facing growing pressure to collaborate with Reform after two former cabinet ministers - Sir Brandon Lewis and Esther McVey – told the Telegraph that Kemi Badenoch and Mr Farage’s parties would not be able to defeat Labour unless they agreed to co-operate.
Sir Brandon - a former Northern Ireland secretary and party chairman - told The Telegraph: “If we want to defeat Labour then the Right has to find a way to come together, and the same logic applies to the locals.
“I just can’t see that being viable at the moment, because Kemi has been so fixated around saying ‘absolutely no way’. But the Right cannot win while it is split. That’s for sure.”
Meanwhile, Ms McVey said the Tories should “put personalities aside to look at the end goal”.
“The end goal is to remove socialism and this socialist Government given the way it is destroying the country.
“Now, if that means having an electoral pact to make sure that you get the goal you want, then that’s what I’d be doing because I am a pragmatist. If Tories and Reform on the ground want to do local pacts for the local and Mayoral elections, they should be allowed to do so.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Reform want to destroy us. They are the reason we are saddled with a Labour Government. We would not do a pact with that.”
A Reform spokesman said there were “absolutely no circumstances in which Reform would ever do a pact with the Conservative Party”.
