I have known lots of Tory voters in my life and a fair few Tory members and many of them have been decent people who want the best for our country, albeit they have different ways of achieving it to us (the same could be said for Labour supporters). But on October 18th the Tory Party changed and I do not believe any decent person can now vote for them.
Their “ rising star” Katie Lam, who is a shadow Home Office Minister, says that she wants to deport millions of people who have “Indefinite Right to Remain” (ILR). She told the Times (£):
There are also a large number of people in this country who came here legally, but in effect shouldn’t have been able to do so. It’s not the fault of the individuals who came here, they just shouldn’t have been able to do so. They will also need to go home. What that will leave is a mostly, but not entirely, culturally coherent group of people.
This is the language of mass deportations; of our friends, our workmates and members of our families, who have lived here , obeyed the law , paid their taxes and brought up their families here.
We can see the full awfulness this by looking at the Private Members Bill which has more detail on how it would work.
The fact that the first Clause says : “Make provision about the disapplication of the Human Rights Act 1998 in relation to immigration law” gives a hint to how bad it is.
The FT’s Stephen Bush (£) has looked at what this Bill would mean and points out that by saying that anyone who had received any form of ‘social protection’ payments (a technical term which covers most welfare payments) would be deported would include any benefits including the State Pension, and the Bill states that anyone living in council housing would lose their ILR. In addition anyone, whose income falls below £38,700 would lose their ILR. Not only is this above the median UK income but this would cover for example women taking more than 6 months maternity leave and parents who gave up work to care for a disabled child.
It gets worse – someone with a dependent who receives ‘social protection’ payments would also lose their ILR: so a parent with a disabled child who gets money from the state would be deported.
Ed Davey has responded to this vileness with a letter to Kemi Badenoch in which he says this:
shows just how far your party has moved away from the fundamental values of decency, tolerance and respect for the rule of law that the vast majority of people in our country hold dear.
A Tory spokesperson has confirmed that these proposals are “broadly in line with party policy”.
So there we have it. A vote for the Tories means hard working , law-abiding immigrants will be deported if they lose their job, get long term sickness or have to care for a sick child and we will told this this will make us more “culturally coherent”.
The old Tory Party with all its faults is dead. No decent person should vote for this new version.
* Simon McGrath is a Councillor in Wimbledon and represents Lib Dem Councillors on the Party’s Federal Board
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
A perpetual pirouette of prevarication?
Michael Meadowcroft: A Liberal of Intellectual Rigour and Uncommon Integrity
Debt-ridden graduates claim they are seen as cash cows
Why non-fiction books need their indexes
Changes in status: Local Elections wrap up
David Raw
Jenny Barnes
Tom Bailey
Gill Travers
Alison Howarth
13 Comments
It took me 46 years + of National insurance contributions to get my Basic State Pension ..
Are you suggesting that someone in their 60s who is ILR with limited NI conts should qualify for pension credit – which currently amounts to more than what I get from the BSP.
Just because Lam & co have a different outlook on this doesn’t make anybody morally superior or is not a decent person in wanting the best for British Citizens who’ve worked damned hard to earn that pension.
@ Greg Hyde… It isn’t just about pensions, credit, etc.. It’s about her, “What that will leave is a mostly, but not entirely, culturally coherent group of people”..
So the UK would have a few ‘token’ non ‘British’ inhabitants.. Anything more racist ** would be difficult to find..
**(Racism includes ‘ethnicity’ which is based on CULTURE, ancestry, language, and history)
The march of fascism!
I don’t see it as being racist necessarily. If the uk said no initially then surely that’s what every country has the right to. But I do have an issue with saying no, having said yes! But 2029 is a wee ways away so let’s see what their actual policy is then. One of the main criteria I’ll be looking at is which party is prepared to tackle the coming debt crisis.
@expats
Though a totally unfair policy, it would not be a racist policy unless it were applied on the basis of race. In actual fact, I would expect that most immigrants affected would be white – EU citizens who moved to the UK under Freedom of movement – so this policy is not targeted at non-white immigrants.
Jenny Smith 28th Oct ’25 – 1:46pm..
As I wrote “Racism is not restricted to colour’; It includes ‘ethnicity’ which is based on CULTURE, ancestry, language, and history..
Reading your post seems to imply that it is not possible to be racist against Irish, gypsies etc. You seem to follow the Dianne Abbot definition rather than the UK definition..
‘What that will leave is a mostly, but not entirely, culturally coherent group of people.’ So that’s the objective. However you define cutural coherence, the objective is to use policy to select who the conservative party thinks fits in and who doesn’t. Vile.
@ David Evans “Reading your post seems to imply that it is not possible to be racist against Irish, gypsies”.
Oh, but it is, David. I was always proud and admiring of the way Eric Lubbock, the MP for Orpington (and later as Lord Avebury), dealt with the many issues facing the Traveller Community…………. but dealing harshly with the Traveller Community isn’t limited to the other political parties. It’s a bit nearer home than that.
So Lam is proposing a woman who has lived here for 45 years, paid NI and Income Tax and has British children will be thrown out of the country just because her income from pension etc is £38k not £39k. Not only immoral but disgusting.
The cultural diversity of Britain should be celebrated not eradicated. The variation in customs, religious/non-religious and political views and acceptance of those differences makes Britain a better and fairer place to live. It seems like the majority of people feel the same so it is no wonder the current Tory party has done so badly.
I agree entirely that if you believe in effective,pragmatic and logical government, social unity, cautious incremental reform based on the social consensus, respecting existing traditions and institutions but reducing any overeach or accidentally oppressive complexity in how they work, and if you are wary of the unintended consequences unilaterally revoking existing laws and rights without warning and rationale and clear public majority backing, you are:
a) a textbook ‘conservative’
b) completely out of step with the Tories for years and years, but particularly now.
c) probably the sort of person Starmer longs to vote for Labour, but isn’t – as far as we can tell – really doing so in significant numbers (or not any more than they were in the past).
…and its not at all incompatible with a programme of electoral and democratic reform (allthough maybe not the Lib Dem one in every detail).
But I’m not at all sure these people are natural Liberals or Liberal Democrats, and if they are, how the more radical activists in the Lib Dems will cope who have a different concept of the purpose and ideological basis for reform, and a different understanding of personal freedom.
I do think many pragmatic Lib Dems (without really realising it or meaning anything dishonest by it) are pretending to be this party, or complacent with voters who think they are this party voting for them, and don’t wish to scare the horses.
Badenock has made it clear new rules would not be retrospective. So maybe not indecent voting tory?
Russell, it was very very very very sloooowly that Badenoch clarified the situation. I’m not sure this idea is genuinely back in its box and off the menu in Toryland.
Russel, Kemi Badenoch recently announced a plan to create a new “Removals Force” tasked with deporting at least 750,000 immigrants over a five-year parliamentary term..
Hmmm?