Last-ditch attempt to turn MP on refugee bill
A vigil was held and letters handed in at the Conservative Party headquarters in St Leonards yesterday in a last-ditch attempt to persuade MP Sally-Ann Hart to reverse her support for the government’s Nationality and Borders bill, which looks likely to come up for a final vote in the Commons next week. Nick Terdre reports.
The brief vigil was held yesterday afternoon outside Conservative Party headquarters on the Ponswood Industrial Estate by Felicity Laurence of Hastings Community of Sanctuary (HCoS), retired Bishop Laurie Green, HCoS colleagues Jane Grimshaw and Annette Angell, Susan Monroe, former CEO Freedom From Torture, Charlotte Hempshall of St Leonards Methodist church, Revd Luke Dean of St John the Evangelist in Hollington and Father David Hill of St John the Evangelist in Brittany Road.
The open letter says that the MP should be guided by the majority opinion in her constituency, which, it argues, is opposed to the government’s Nationality and Borders bill.
The MP was not present, nor would the office staff open the door to take delivery of the letter, but Laurence had obtained in advance a written assurance that they would promptly forward a copy of it to her (she was at a surgery in Rye).
Although HCoS has been seeking a meeting with Hart since February, the earliest date she has been able to offer them is in early April, by which time the destiny of the bill is expected to have been decided.
The 30 signatories to the letter, all from the Hastings area, include representatives of other refugee support groups, human rights and community groups, ministers and parishioners of local churches and borough and county councillors.
Petition
Accompanying the letter was an HCoS petition which at the latest count has gathered more than 1,250 signatories, calling on the MP to oppose the bill.
“We have found a repeated concern that the Bill’s provisions are simply too harsh, with a general unhappiness at the removal of the right to seek asylum and the criminalising of anyone who arrives in a small boat or by other spontaneous means,” says the letter, published on the HCoS website.
“On the question of offshoring people in distant countries, there is real horror – even where people are worried about how we might cope with a refugee influx.”
In response to the recent arrival of refugees in small boats, Hastings people showed their “decency and compassion” by donating more than £34,000 to Hastings Supports Refugees, plus huge quantities of new clothing, the letter says, adding:
We know that there are other, less welcoming voices. But in our experience over the past months these are in a tiny minority – in fact, we could count on one hand the number of directly hostile opinions we have encountered…
“We state here very clearly that on all evidence a majority of your constituents do not support the legislation being proposed by the Government in the Nationality and Borders Bill, and therefore we are asking that as our representative in Parliament, you vote accordingly,” it concludes.
Faith leaders speak
In her package Hart also received a copy of a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed by more than 1,000 faith leaders who say they are “horrified and appalled about the potential repercussions of the Nationality and Borders Bill.”
Criminalising vulnerable asylum seekers arriving here by “irregular routes” is a “disgraceful and dishonourable policy”, it says.
Revd Dean recently sent his own letter to the MP, in which he contests claims by Conservative Catholics on the party website of an overlap between the church’s social teaching and the Conservative political and intellectual tradition, and ends by writing: “Can you imagine Jesus standing on Hastings’ beach, pushing a boat full of refugees back out into open water and saying ‘Go back to France and seek asylum there’? — that seems to me to be an entirely perverted understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
A further theological contribution to the debate has been made in a video by Bishop Green.
Detrimental impact
Hart has also been copied into a letter sent by Hastings Borough Council leader Cllr Kim Forward to Home Secretary Priti Patel, which, among other criticisms, says the bill “will have the effect of removing people seeking asylum from the wider community, with a detrimental impact on those people who are in need of our protection” and will “create a hostile two-tiered asylum system.”
It calls on the government to abandon the bill and work instead to reform the asylum seeker process.
The bill has recently suffered a mauling at the hands of the Lords, including many Tory peers, who voted down its anti-liberal measures. However when it returns to the Commons – which is scheduled for next week – the government is expected to restore these clauses and move swiftly to a vote, possibly curtailing debate to a minimum.
Hart has so far shown full support for the bill and observers think it unlikely that she will change her mind.
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The people leaving Ukraine are genuine refugees fleeing war and danger. The people coming over on boats (the majority of whom are young men) from France are not. They are economic migrants taking advantage of a weak Home Office. They should not be accorded the same status. This is clearly the view of the majority of people in the UK, not a “tiny minority”…
Comment by Harry — Thursday, Mar 17, 2022 @ 05:56
On what grounds can Hart’s office staff refuse to open the door to receive the letter? I query their right to do this. Hart is an elected representative: she is answerable to the constituency and must receive all communications from her constituencies. Is this being taken further?
Comment by Ann Kramer — Sunday, Mar 13, 2022 @ 14:23