LABOUR are set to roll out videos of deportations as the party ramps up its efforts to appear tough on immigration.
In a bid to quell rising levels of support for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, the party is said to be preparing videos showing the “journey” of illegal migrants being sent out of the country.
The footage will show dawn raids, grim immigration centres, transfers to planes and, subject to approval, the scenes from inside deportation flights, The Times reports.
The move will likely appal leftwingers inside the party and its critics in the SNP and the Greens.
It comes after the party launched Facebook pages which aped Reform’s branding and promoted Labour’s record on migration with boasts about deportations reaching a five year high.
More than 16,400 illegal immigrants, foreign criminals and people whose asylum claims were rejected were deported by the UK Government in the six months since Labour came to power – the highest number since 2017.
Senior Labour figures believe that imposing tougher immigration policies and harsh rhetoric on the issue will halt rising levels of support for Reform and one ally of Keir Starmer told The Times the Prime Minister was “not squeamish about this stuff”.
At an awayday Cabinet meeting on Friday, Starmer told ministers that “progressive liberals” have been “too relaxed about not listening to people about the impact” of immigration, the Sunday Times reported.
One anonymous Government source told the paper: “We recognise the need to ‘show not tell’ what’s being done to tackle illegal immigration.”
The Home Office is also set to publish a leaflet, mocked up to look like a red top tabloid, declaring that “Labour is tackling illegal immigration” – in a move which has echoes of Theresa May’s infamous “go home” vans.
It comes as MPs prepare to debate the Government’s new migration bill on Monday.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill promises to make it easier to “investigate, detect and disrupt” organised immigration crime – but campaigners have warned it entrenches draconian Tory migration policies, including blocks on people claiming they are victims of modern slavery.
