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Angela Eagle defends government plan to broadcast deportations as Home Office launches new immigration raids
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Home secretary Yvette Cooper last month. Photograph: Andy Taylor / Home Office/Home Office Flickr
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Minister defends using TV footage to promote crackdown on illegal workers as critics call it 'performative'
Good morning. Politicians like to claim that they are completely different from their opponents, because to win elections they need dividing line issues, but in truth the similarities can be striking too, because they end up facing the same challenges, and the electorate does not change much either. This Labour government is not the same as the last Conservative one. But at times it has sounded like Rishi Sunak (it adopted his signature anti-smoking legislation wholesale), Liz Truss (ministers constantly stress that growth is the number one priority) and even Boris Johnson (after the negativism of last year’s budget, there is a pivot towards more optimism). And today it it is sounding a bit like Theresa May in her “hostile environment” phase as home secretary.
The Home Office has embarked on a publicity blitz to show that it it beefing up efforts to catch people who are working in the UK illegally and to deport people who should not be in the country. This is not just policy; it involves ‘show not tell’ communications. As Pippa Crerar, Diane Taylor and Peter Walker report:
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is expected to join an early morning raid this week targeting illegal working, while the government will broadcast footage of deportations, a number of them involving foreign criminals, from detention to removal centres and on to waiting planes …
Downing Street is planning to go beyond simply taking the fight to Reform. “We don’t think it’s enough just to look strong on migration, we actually need to be strong. We’ve done really well on returns but people say they don’t believe it, that if it was true they’d see it on the news,” a source said.
This sort of approach is contentious in liberal circles (which may be part of the appeal in No 10, where Labour figures are worried a lot more at the moment about losing votes to Reform UK than losing votes to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens) and the Refugee Council has criticised the Home Office for the way it is publicising what it is doing. Enver Solomon, its chief executive, told the Independent:
It was not long ago that hate-filled mobs attempted to burn refugees alive in a hotel,. Communities are still healing from the appalling violence last summer, so the government should not risk driving up mistrust by using performative tactics that play into negative and dangerous narratives about immigration.
The public want a system that is orderly and controlled but also compassionate. That includes returning people without a right to be in the UK, but doing so in a dignified way instead of melodramatic television footage that will not build trust in government.
Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, has been doing an interview round this morning and she defended that the government is doing. Asked whether the policy was line with Keir Starmer’s previous pledge in opposition to create an immigration system “based on compassion and dignity”, Eagle replied:
I don’t believe for one minute that enforcing the law and ensuring that people who break the law face the consequences of doing that, up to and including deportation, arrest, is not compassionate. We have to have a system where the rules are respected and enforced.
She also defended the Home Office releasing pictures and footage of immigration raids and deportations:
It’s important that we show what we are doing and it’s important that we send messages to people who may have been sold lies about what will await them in the UK if they get themselves smuggled in.
They are more likely to be living in squalid conditions, being exploited by vicious gangs.
It’s important that we get those realities across and it’s important that that’s done in imagery as well as words.
There will be more on this as the day goes on. Here is the agenda for the day.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Afternoon: Farmers hold a rally in Westminster to protest about the extension of inheritance tax to cover farms.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: MPs debate the second reading of the border security, asylum and immigration bill.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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The Home Office plans to close nine more asylum hotels by the end of March, Angela Eagle said this morning.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, said:
At the height of the last government, there were 400 hotels in use. We are at 218 now.
Asked if that number would decline next month, Eagle: “Yes. There are nine hotels that are planned for closure by the end of March.”
Quite a lot of government activity at the moment involves waking up in the morning, finding out about the latest eruption from Donald Trump, and then (like the rest of us) trying to work out whether to take it seriously. This morning the news from Washington is about a Trump proposal to put 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.
In comments on his way to the Super Bowl late on Sunday, the president said he will impose 25% tariffs on “any steel coming into the United States”, adding that aluminium will also be subject to additional duties. According to Politico, about 10% of UK steel exports last year went to America.
Asked about the Trump comments, Angela Eagle, the Home Office minister, said this morning the government would have to “wait and see whether the president gets more specific about what he meant by that comment”. She went on:
We have a very balanced trading relationship with the US – I think £300 billion worth of trade between our countries – and I think it’s in the best interests of both of us, as longstanding allies and neighbours, that we carry on with that balanced trade.
Second Labour MP faces sanctions over offensive WhatsApp group messages
The Labour MP Oliver Ryan is to meet the government chief whip to decide on any sanctions over his membership of a WhatsApp group that featured racist, sexist and other offensive comments, Angela Eagle has said. Peter Walker has the story.
Minister defends using TV footage to promote crackdown on illegal workers as critics call it 'performative'
Good morning. Politicians like to claim that they are completely different from their opponents, because to win elections they need dividing line issues, but in truth the similarities can be striking too, because they end up facing the same challenges, and the electorate does not change much either. This Labour government is not the same as the last Conservative one. But at times it has sounded like Rishi Sunak (it adopted his signature anti-smoking legislation wholesale), Liz Truss (ministers constantly stress that growth is the number one priority) and even Boris Johnson (after the negativism of last year’s budget, there is a pivot towards more optimism). And today it it is sounding a bit like Theresa May in her “hostile environment” phase as home secretary.
The Home Office has embarked on a publicity blitz to show that it it beefing up efforts to catch people who are working in the UK illegally and to deport people who should not be in the country. This is not just policy; it involves ‘show not tell’ communications. As Pippa Crerar, Diane Taylor and Peter Walker report:
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is expected to join an early morning raid this week targeting illegal working, while the government will broadcast footage of deportations, a number of them involving foreign criminals, from detention to removal centres and on to waiting planes …
Downing Street is planning to go beyond simply taking the fight to Reform. “We don’t think it’s enough just to look strong on migration, we actually need to be strong. We’ve done really well on returns but people say they don’t believe it, that if it was true they’d see it on the news,” a source said.
This sort of approach is contentious in liberal circles (which may be part of the appeal in No 10, where Labour figures are worried a lot more at the moment about losing votes to Reform UK than losing votes to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens) and the Refugee Council has criticised the Home Office for the way it is publicising what it is doing. Enver Solomon, its chief executive, told the Independent:
It was not long ago that hate-filled mobs attempted to burn refugees alive in a hotel,. Communities are still healing from the appalling violence last summer, so the government should not risk driving up mistrust by using performative tactics that play into negative and dangerous narratives about immigration.
The public want a system that is orderly and controlled but also compassionate. That includes returning people without a right to be in the UK, but doing so in a dignified way instead of melodramatic television footage that will not build trust in government.
Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, has been doing an interview round this morning and she defended that the government is doing. Asked whether the policy was line with Keir Starmer’s previous pledge in opposition to create an immigration system “based on compassion and dignity”, Eagle replied:
I don’t believe for one minute that enforcing the law and ensuring that people who break the law face the consequences of doing that, up to and including deportation, arrest, is not compassionate. We have to have a system where the rules are respected and enforced.
She also defended the Home Office releasing pictures and footage of immigration raids and deportations:
It’s important that we show what we are doing and it’s important that we send messages to people who may have been sold lies about what will await them in the UK if they get themselves smuggled in.
They are more likely to be living in squalid conditions, being exploited by vicious gangs.
It’s important that we get those realities across and it’s important that that’s done in imagery as well as words.
There will be more on this as the day goes on. Here is the agenda for the day.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Afternoon: Farmers hold a rally in Westminster to protest about the extension of inheritance tax to cover farms.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: MPs debate the second reading of the border security, asylum and immigration bill.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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