KEIR Starmer has been accused by one of his closest trade union allies of encouraging “toxic politics” by barring refugees from becoming UK citizens.
Christine McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, has signed an open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to scrap plans to prevent anyone who arrived in Britain by illegal means from obtaining citizenship.
The policy would mean that asylum seekers who arrived in Britain by small boats or smuggled in lorries would be stopped from becoming citizens, which McAnae and nine Church of England bishops said made them “second-class citizens”.
Labour were previously accused of sneaking through the changes, which campaigners have described as a "profound setback for refugee rights in the UK".
The letter has been signed by 148 people and warned the Government it was being “manipulated by the far right”.
McAnea (above), normally thought of as a Starmer ally, heads one of Labour’s most significant union backers.
The change in policy came in the form of updated guidance to citizenship caseworkers, who are now being instructed to block applications from people who “made a dangerous journey” to get to the UK.
The letter said that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper must “urgently reconsider the decision to effectively ban tens of thousands of refugees from ever becoming British citizens”, The Guardian reports.
It added: “It was only last August that violent mobs sought to burn refugees alive in a hotel. Those communities are still healing from that violence and part of the response to the violence should be on creating integrated communities.
“Labelling refugees, who through no fault of their own have had to put their lives at risk on flimsy vessels, or have had to hide in the backs of lorries to reach safety on our shores, as a type of second-class individual will simply breed division and distrust. It risks playing into a toxic politics that pits ‘us vs them’ and is then manipulated by the far right to bring hate and disorder to our streets.”
Signatories argued that the last Labour government had recognised the importance of citizenship “in fostering integration, and the proportion of refugees applying for citizenship was a key indicator for the strategy”.
Other signatories include the heads of the Refugee Council, Islamic Relief UK and the Chartered Institute of Housing; and other faith leaders such as rabbis from the Conference of Liberal Rabbis and Cantors, the president and vice-president of the Methodist Conference and the general secretary of the Baptist Union.
The letter added: “When refugees become citizens, they feel a greater sense of belonging as full members of their communities with a stable future for themselves, their children and generations to come.”
The Refugee Council has estimated that the new rules could bar 71,000 people who had successfully claimed asylum in the UK from ever becoming citizens.
Former home secretary David Blunkett has called for parliament to be given a say in the change of policy.
In an urgent question in the House of Lords last week, the Labour peer said the Home Secretary should “reflect on the societal and cohesion aspects of this policy, the impact on children and their right to UK citizenship and the statelessness which would arise for individuals if their birth country refused to renew or retain their nationality”.
He added: “Surely this parliament should have a say in such a big change.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “There are longstanding rules that can prevent those arriving illegally from gaining citizenship. The government is strengthening these measures to make it clear that anyone who enters the UK illegally, including small boat arrivals, faces having a British citizenship application refused.”
