Sheffield City Council: Labour accused as being as 'vile and inhumane' as Tories on asylum seekers

Councillor Alexi Dimond, who represents Gleadless Valley, made the comments on Twitter following a House of Commons debate on the Conservatives’ Illegal Migration Bill.

He wrote: “Listening to Yvette Cooper today, it's clear there is no difference between her & Suella Braverman. UK Labour are as vile and inhumane to people seeking safety as the Tories. Shame on anyone who will vote or campaign for them.”

The tweet was finished with #RefugeesWelcome and the accounts of both the Home Secretary and Shadow Home Secretary were tagged in the tweet.

Coun Dimond has been a vocal advocate on behalf of refugees seeking asylum in the UK, regularly voicing his support for those fleeing war and persecution and campaigning on their behalf.

In the House of Commons yesterday, Suella Braverman outlined the government’s plan to halt small boat crossings of the English Channel, which have allowed thousands of refugees to reach British shores to claim asylum. She said the government has been working to “end the farce of accommodating migrants in hotels” and the new bill is “how we will stop the boats”.

Ms Braverman said: “[Migrants crossing the channel] will not stop coming here until the world knows that if you enter Britain illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed—back to your country if it is safe, or to a safe third country, such as Rwanda.

“This Bill enables the detention of illegal arrivals, without bail or judicial review within the first 28 days of detention, until they can be removed.”

Ms Braverman refused to expand on the “legal complexities” of the bill in her comments to the Commons, but did write to Tory MPs and Peers admitting the bill was “more than 50 per cent” likely to break human rights laws.

Yvette Cooper branded the new bill a “con” in her response to the Home Secretary’s monologue, but did say Labour “would work with them” if the government set out a “serious plan”.

Ms Cooper said: “If the Government were serious, they would be working internationally to get a proper new agreement in place with France and Europe, including return agreements, properly controlled and managed legal routes such as family reunion, and reform of resettlement.

“If the Government were serious, they would be working with Labour on our plan for a major new cross-border policing unit to go after the criminal gangs. Instead, the deputy chairman of the Conservative party, The Honourable Member for Ashfield [Lee Anderson] said yesterday that we should not go after the gangs because they have existed for ‘thousands of years’.”

During the Commons debate, Caroline Lucas, the former co-leader of the Greens and current MP for Brighton Pavilion, asked Ms Braverman if she recognised it is “positively Orwellian” and “morally repugnant” to “seek to ban people from seeking asylum unless they use safe and legal routes, as those routes barely exist”. Ms Lucas blasted the Illegal Migration Bill as “shameful, divisive, dog-whistle legislation”.

The Home Secretary responded by saying the UK had “accepted nearly 500,000 people through safe and legal routes for humanitarian reasons”.