It’s not often you get a one-word quote from a politician.

“Pathetic.”

This was Ed Davey’s reaction to the news that Labour were to abstain on the Government’s Immigration Bill.

This Bill ends freedom of movement, rolling out the Hostile Environment on an industrial scale to EU nationals, not just those who are already here but those we desperately need to come here and work in the future.

A £30,000 salary requirement to take up a job here will obliterate our health and social care services. It is so short sighted.

This Bill is brutal, inhumane and exactly what you would expect from the Tories. It is to be opposed with passion.

We’re obviously voting against it. Labour initially said they were going to abstain. When a number of Labour MPs said that they would vote against, this was revised to a one-line whip. A one-line Whip is pretty much “turn up if you feel like it.”

This does not save Labour’s face.

Part of the reason we are in this mess is because people didn’t robustly stand up to the Daily Mail and UKIP and their revolting prejudice against immigrants. Nobody was making the positive argument for immigration and challenging the awful stuff in the media. Labour’s equivocation is disgraceful.

This Bill needs to be opposed. The Immigration Rules as they are are horrific. They need to be ripped up and we need to start again and build a system that has fairness and dignity and respect at its heart. It needs to welcome the fact that people fall across with people from the other side of the world and celebrate the fact that they want to live together in this country. It needs to enthusiastically welcome the workers we desperately need to keep our farms, hospitals and care homes, our universities, our businesses and our hotels and restaurants.

This government gets away with such egregious things because Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party lets it. On Brexit, on immigration, on everything, Labour should be piling on the pressure. Tory Whips should be tearing their hair out on every vote. They shouldn’t be putting their feet up knowing that they are not seriously under threat. No minority government should ever feel so comfortable.

You can certainly see where Mitch Benn is coming from.

NEW SONG: What Is The Point Of Jeremy Corbyn?

I imagine I’m going to get a fair bit of grief for this one but screw it, I’m sick of people making excuses for him. He’s fucking useless.https://t.co/8C4POiFzMj pic.twitter.com/PeAUhTQ97a

— Mitch Benn 🇪🇺 (@MitchBenn) January 26, 2019

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social