Category: My work

I support the right of all people to claim asylum; there is a moral obligation upon every one of us to ensure there are always safe and legal routes for refugees seeking sanctuary in the UK. This imminent deportation flight to Rwanda is quite the opposite, and along with so many others, I object it in the strongest possible terms.

I share the significant concerns raised about the Bill by numerous campaigners and international human rights organisations.

This Bill produces a two-tier system of refugee protection based not on need, but on a refugee’s method of travel. Their case would be decided on their means of entry to the UK rather than on the merits of their right to asylum or refugee status.

It is the height of hypocrisy to send refugees to Rwanda, a country whose citizens have previously been given asylum here in the UK.

It’s quite clear that desperate attempts by people to seek a better life can often be traced back to wars and colonialism that have established and entrenched global inequality.

Many groups including Liberty had previously raised concerns about how the Bill appears to favour the development of more detention centres, and to follow the models of Australia and Greece in having offshore detention centres.  These systems are costly and abusive – with impacts on the mental and physical health of people who have often already experienced trauma.

For these reasons, I voted against the Nationality and Borders Bill when it was heard in Parliament on 8 December 2021.  Unfortunately, it was passed on a vote of 298 to 231 with the support of Government MPs.

Then in early March, during scrutiny in the House of Lords, the Government was defeated on a series of amendments to the Bill to remove some of what I regard as the worst aspects of this legislation. On 22 March, those amendments then came to the House of Commons to be voted on by MPs.

I voted in favour of the Lord’s amendments to remove the most harmful elements of the Bill.  That included voting for the amendment made by Lord Dubs to provide a safe route for unaccompanied children to be reunited with family in this country. I also voted in favour of an amendment to remove the Government’s power to strip dual nationals of their British citizenship without notice, and for an amendment to remove the Government’s plan to create a two-tier system for asylum seekers and deny rights to those who had arrived here in ways the Government did not approve of. Unfortunately, the Government opposed all of these amendments and Government MPs voted them down.

I  voted against the Bill in its final stage in the Commons in April.

I will continue to advocate in Parliament and beyond that all migrants have automatic access to resources without fear of detention or deportation. This includes ensuring a legal route to family reunion for child refugees, the scrapping of the healthcare surcharge, an end to the No Recourse to Public Funds policy and the closure of detention centres.

I have written to Priti Patel about this dreadful situation yesterday and that letter is below:

The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP
Home Secretary
Secretary of State for the Home Department
Home Office
Marsham St
London  SW1P 4DF

Dear Secretary of State,

The attached letter to you from the IFIR (International Federation of Iraqi Refugees) which you have, says so much more than I possibly could about the proposed deportation flight to Erbil tomorrow, May 31^st.

The facts as I understand them are that many of those who will be on that flight are as follows:

• still engaged in the legal process, with ongoing outstanding claims
• have been badly treated by Mitie staff whilst in detention (a matter for further investigation surely)
• have serious medical needs that have been neglected to date
• are not from Erbil where they are to be abandoned to no friends/family/contacts
• in effect settled here, with longstanding and close ties to family including in a variety of roles from husbands, to partners, step parents, grandparents and so on
• in some cases were born here and so are being unnecessarily uprooted

Furthermore, Iraq is in a state of ongoing turmoil thanks to the Iraq War and we bear considerable responsibility for the associated trauma of anyone living there, or in the wider region.

As an oppressed people, the Kurdish community in particular have had an ongoing and dreadful ordeal, and we owe it to them not to exacerbate their unresolved situation, many of them having fled not once but twice or three times throughout their lives.

I remain vehemently opposed to these charter flights that the Home Office is persisting with and the cruel process of which they are a part.  I would ask you to try to imagine what hell a refugee must already have gone through, before beginning the asylum process.  It is imperative that we act in a humane way toward refugees and asylum seekers and not continue to force more refugees onto a flight out of a supposedly caring society, and into a largely traumatised one.

I look forward to hearing that you have been willing to reconsider your plans here.

Kind regards,

Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP
Islington North

I support the right of all people to claim asylum. I feel that there is a moral obligation to ensure there are always safe and legal routes for refugees seeking sanctuary in the UK.

We all know that the Bill produces a two-tier system of refugee protection based not on need, but on a refugee’s method of travel, which means that their case would be decided on their means of entry to the UK rather than on the merits of their right to asylum or refugee status.

It is the height of hypocrisy to send refugees to Rwanda, a country whose citizens have previously been given asylum here in the UK. It’s quite clear that desperate attempts by people to seek a better life can often be traced back to wars and colonialism that have established and entrenched global inequality.

I voted against Clause 11 of the Bill when it was debated in its final stage in the Commons on April 20^th and was bitterly disappointed that Government voted it in by 304 votes to 224.

Many groups including Liberty had previously raised concerns about how the Bill appears to favour the development of more detention centres, and to follow the models or Australia and Greece in having offshore detention centres. These systems are costly and abusive – with impacts on the mental and physical health of people who have often already experienced trauma.

I voted against the Nationality and Borders Bill when it was heard in Parliament on 8 December 2021. Unfortunately, it was passed on a vote of 298 to 231 with the support of Government MPs.

In early March 2022, during scrutiny in the House of Lords, the Government was defeated on a series of amendments to the Bill to remove some of what I regard as the worst aspects of this legislation. On 22 March, those amendments then came to the House of Commons to be voted on by MPs.

I voted in favour of the Lord’s amendments to remove the most harmful elements of the Bill. That included voting for amendment 27 to give protection for child victims of slavery and human trafficking, the amendment made by Lord Dubs to provide a safe route for unaccompanied children to be reunited with family in this country. I also voted in favour of an amendment to remove the Government’s power to strip dual nationals of their British citizenship without notice, and for an amendment to remove the Government’s plan to create a two-tier system for asylum seekers and deny rights to those who had arrived here in ways the Government did not approve of.

Unfortunately, the Government is opposed to all these amendments and Government MPs voted them down. I will continue to advocate in Parliament and beyond that all migrants have automatic access to resources without fear of detention or deportation. This includes ensuring a legal route to family reunion for child refugees, the scrapping of the healthcare surcharge, an end to the No Recourse to Public Funds policy and the closure of detention centres.

I have always been a keen supporter of animal welfare; I support legislation to ban primates being kept as pets, live animal exports for slaughter, puppy imports, cats and kittens imports, a ban on fur and hunting trophies, to recognise that animals are sentient and to end the badger cull.

I support a ban on any type of cruelty to animals including elephant rides, industrial animal farming practices and am concerned that the Government is not prioritising animal welfare elsewhere – particularly in relation to the signing of new trade deals. These may lead to UK markets being flooded with products from countries that do not meet UK animal welfare standards, such as Australia.

In 2019 I stood on a manifesto setting out a vision to lead the world with high animal welfare standards in the wild, in farming and for domestic animals. I pledged to setup an independent Animal Welfare Commissioner.

The Government must properly protect animal welfare and our natural environment for the long term, and I will continue to speak out directly in Parliament and beyond to continue to keep up the pressure for reform.

I have always voted in favour of all legislation and amendments to stop the cruel treatment of animals and will continue to do so.

I have campaigned for years for more funding for the NHS to ensure we have a service that works and that frontline workers like Junior Doctors and nurses get decent pay.  I have vigorously opposed the creeping privatisation we have seen over recent years.

We saw the Government apply its policy of austerity when Junior Doctors were given no choice but to go on strike in 2015, 2016 and then 2018. Refusing to pay Junior Doctors fairly, just as with Nurses and other NHS staff is part of the Government strategy of privatisation of the NHS in my opinion.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a hidden policy to ‘encourage’ Junior Doctors to leave the NHS and go into the private sector, in other words part of the strategy to sell off our NHS.

I support a pay rise for Junior Doctors, funded not via short term personal tax increases, but by a proper long-term investment plan for the NHS and social care sector, funded by increasing taxation on the very wealthiest in society.

I was elected on a manifesto that committed to policies that would boost the incomes, job security and living standards of working people in the public and private sector. That manifesto also committed to “restore public sector pay to at least pre-financial crisis levels (in real terms), by delivering year-on-year above-inflation pay rises.”

I stand by those commitments and will continue to campaign to see them implemented wherever possible.

I shared the country’s shock and disgust over the revelations about Downing Street parties being held during Christmas 2020, while the rest of us were in lockdown.

I am outraged that Downing Street staff were holding parties which could have contributed to the spread of covid-19, at a time when the rest of us were prevented from seeing our loved ones.

The admission on 12 January 2022 by the Prime Minister, that he attended at least one of these events raises serious questions about his integrity and therefore his ability to continue in office.

Now that it is confirmed that the Metropolitan Police have issued fines to MPs including the Prime Minister and the Chancellor who attended these parties, I call on the prime Minister and the Chancellor to resign. In fact, I call on all the MPs and staff who attended these parties in Downing Street and Whitehall to resign.

The same casual disregard for proper conduct that saw PPE contracts being given to mates and donors of Tory MPs is evident in the early conscious failure to lockdown quickly enough at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, to ensure that profits took precedence over public health needs.

This is all unforgivable, but frankly it doesn’t surprise me that such morally bankrupt people would behave in this way. They are showing their true colours and must be shown up for who they are.