Despite opposing the Government’s Illegal Immigration Bill, just passed its second reading, Labour are keen to pretend they’re tough on immigration – just last week in PMQs Starmer attacked Rishi for failing to get a grip on border control. Well, over the weekend further evidence of Labour’s true preferences was revealed by the Mail on Sunday. Rishi was on the money when he fired back at leftie lawyer Sir Keir:
One of the main pull-factors with illegal immigration is that they believe (rightly) they can claim benefits if they reach Britain’s shores. Partly because in 2003 activist lawyers successfully challenged the Labour government’s decision to bar asylum seekers from claiming benefits. The legislation was intended to prevent people abusing the system – they would overstay their visas, falsely claim asylum and enjoy benefits whilst they spent years establishing their claims. A young plain Mister Keir Starmer QC was the lawyer who won the right for them to claim benefits.
In response to the judgement, the then Home Secretary David Blunkett despaired:
“I am personally fed up with having to deal with the situation where Parliament debates issues and the judges overturn them.”
Just as with the Rwanda policy, Keir and the liberal legal establishment sided against Parliament and the elected government.
David Blunkett was driven to place his head in his hands over Chris Williamson’s GDP growth claims this afternoon on Politics Live. How’s that Labour unity working out for you..?
David Blunkett says…
“…the Corbyn revolution is the dog that refused to bark. The party I have worked for all my life catastrophically failed to win targets such as Barnet, where voters, at least in part, turned away from Labour in droves because of the anti-Semitism furore. Outside London the picture was worse, with disastrous performances in Dudley, Derby and elsewhere. Election expert Professor Sir John Curtice pointed out there had actually been a swing to the Conservatives from Labour. Yet according to the leadership’s advance publicity, this was an election in which the Corbyn-supporting Momentum group was supposed to deliver grassroots campaigning and a seismic political breakthrough. How telling that one of Labour’s few success stories, in Plymouth, happened precisely because local activists insisted on running their own campaign and told Momentum to stay away. The lesson to be learned is simple and obvious: Corbyn’s project is leading the party away from victory.”
The BBC is reporting that a British former Guantanamo Bay detainee turned ISIS fighter has carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq. Abu-Zakariya al-Britani was formerly known as Jamal al-Harith and before that Ronald Fiddler. In 2004 al-Harith was released from Guantanamo after intense lobbying by the Blair government, who said he was mistreated. At the time Shami Chakrabarti, the then head of Liberty, said she was “delighted” that al-Harith and four other detainees were being released:
“We are delighted that the five have been released, but let us not forget those that are remaining. Nor should we forget that Britain has its very own Guantanamo Bay at Belmarsh Prison, in south-east London, where 14 men have been held for up to two years without charge, or prospect of trial, on suspicion of being associated with terrorism. At long last the Americans have done the honourable thing and released their detainees.”
The then Home Secretary David Blunkett insisted “No one who is returned … will actually be a threat to the security of the British people”. The infamous CAGE group gave him this glowing reference:
“His family say he is a gentle, quiet man who rarely spoke of his faith unless asked, and after four years learning Arabic and teaching English at Khartoum University in Sudan, he seemed happy enough to return home where he started to study nursing… He was released from Guantanamo and returned to the UK on 9th March 2004. After a few hours of questioning he was released without charge and reunited with his family.”
13 years later and al-Harith had joined ISIS and detonated a car bomb at an Iraqi base in Mosul…
