Cruelty to immigrants is not what my party stands for. It's time for True Labour, not Blue Labour | Stella Creasy

"The performative cruelty of repeatedly demanding that refugees prove they are still refugees or else face deportation cannot be understated. It is also a waste of money given that so few refugees, when retested, will change status. At nearly 1bn, this is money that could be better spent on foreign aid programmes to tackle the conflicts that create refugees."

"The group blames London liberals for cannibalising British identity, values, cultures and ways of living. It demands that progressives disavow those who stray from these norms as the other. It nurtures a nostalgia for a nation that only ever worked for the few."

"Blue Labour also parrots the lump of labour fallacy that immigrants come here to take jobs rather than help make them, and seeks to deter them accordingly. For a government fighting on multiple fronts, this approach has been ineffective as well as toxic."

The current Labour government risks abandoning the refugee convention it proudly signed in 1951 through policies driven by Blue Labour ideology. These policies include repeatedly testing refugees to prove their status, threatening deportation, and wasting nearly £1 billion on ineffective measures. The government uses Henry VIII powers to bypass parliamentary scrutiny. Blue Labour blames progressive values for eroding British identity and treats immigrants as job-takers rather than job-creators. This approach extends beyond refugees to broader anti-immigration sentiment. Ministers respond to headlines rather than evidence, resulting in poorly conceived policies including welfare proposals, ID cards, and reduced housing targets. Repeated circumvention of parliamentary process undermines democratic principles and produces ineffective governance.

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