Wes Streeting has suggested that he would not feel “comfortable” with the idea of deporting families with children from the UK under Labour’s latest crackdown on migrants.
The health secretary said that “the number of forced removals should be low” as part of Shabana Mahmood’s controversial asylum reforms unveiled earlier this week.
The home secretary set out a raft of changes to the asylum system on Monday, including plans to remove families with children with no right to be in the UK by force if necessary.
The party’s toughened stance aimed at cutting the number of people entering the UK via irregular routes, such as small boats, faced a backlash within the party, including from Labour peer and refugee from the Nazis Lord Alf Dubs, who accused Ms Mahmood of using “children as a weapon”.
Asked about the prospect of removing families with children, Mr Streeting told LBC that the number of forced removals “should be low”.
Pushed later on whether he was comfortable with the prospect, he added: “Honestly? Comfortable? No. But is it the right thing to do for the country? Yes.”
The plans will also apply to children born in the UK to parents who have no right to be in the country.
Officials said children would be required to leave the country with their parents if their refugee status is revoked, The Times reported.
A source told the newspaper it was to ensure there are no “perverse incentives” for refugees to have children in the UK “on the basis that they can stay”.
On Tuesday, Lord Dubs, who fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and arrived in England on Kindertransport, told the BBC’s Today programme: “I find it upsetting that we’ve got to adopt such a hard line – what we need is a bit of compassion in our politics and I think that some of the measures were going in the wrong direction, they won’t help.”
The campaigner for refugees also said that “to use children as a weapon, as the home secretary is doing, I think is a shabby thing”, as he pointed to the fate of children born in the UK and integrated into communities whose parents are slated for removal.
Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Mahmood faced a backlash against their plan to toughen up the asylum system shortly after it was unveiled on Monday.
The package, designed to discourage asylum seekers and make it easier to remove those with no right to be in the country, also includes proposals such as reducing the initial timeframe refugees can stay in the UK from five years to 30 months.
Sarah Owen, chair of the women and equalities committee, labelled the policies “repugnant” while Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said the changes were “performatively cruel”.
She added: “It doesn’t have to be like this. There is a better way forward rooted in Labour values that also ensures control at our borders.”
