One of the key bills to be announced in today’s Queen’s Speech is an immigration bill. This serves two key purposes: the first is to bring into legislation all those additional restrictions on access to public services for migrants that was briefed out following the Eastleigh by-election. The second is to answer Tory backbench concerns about deportation of foreign criminals.
When it comes to restrictions for migrants – and these measures will, ministers hope, help calm nerves about the end of transitional controls on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals – temporary migrants will need to make a contribution before they can access the NHS, landlords will be required to check the immigration status of a tenant, and the government will crack down on businesses using illegal labour with bigger fines. There are other plans which don’t require primary legislation such as updated rules for social housing.
The deportation element of the Immigration Bill is the answer to that backbench push in the Crime and Courts Bill for limits on the ability of foreign criminals to resist deportation. Theresa May had assured backbenchers that the government would be bringing forward a bill that gave legislative backing to prevent the abuse of Article 8, and today’s bill does just that. Dominic Raab, who tabled the amendment supported by over 100 MPs from across the Commons (and talked out by ministers), gave a cautious welcome to the plan:
‘The devil will be in the detail but the Home Secretary is absolutely right to give the courts a direct mandate in primary legislation to deport foreign criminals without spurious human rights claims clogging up the process.’
If MPs don’t feel the Bill gives adequate protections, they’ve got that original amendment that they can take off the peg, dust off, and re-table in its current form. And given over 100 backbenchers – including ministerial aides – had indicated support for it, it would be sure to pass.
Labour is complaining that this Bill will have a limited impact. It’s an indication of how far the party has travelled on this policy area that its shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is arguing that the government should have gone further, rather than attacking the legislation as a ‘lurch to the right’.
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