The wave of anti-migrant protests across Britain is not only deeply worrying, it is a stark warning to all those lulled into a false sense of security since the election of Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
The demonstrations outside hotels housing asylum seekers in recent weeks have shown that the far right has been organising and growing in the UK.
As an educator, seeing children wrapped in Union Jack flags joining these protests shook me to my core.
People gathered were spewing hateful speech as though it were a family day out. I wonder whether those young people truly believe their access to jobs, decent housing and healthcare is being blocked by those risking their lives to reach this country.
Even if shocking, the demonstrations are not surprising. YouGov’s latest polls indicate that nearly half of British voters support “admitting no more new migrants, and requiring large numbers of migrants who came to the UK in recent years to leave”.
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Yet this climate of hate did not suddenly appear out of nowhere, nor is it the inevitable outcome of 14 years of hard-right Conservative rule. Labour under Starmer is also very much to blame.
Long before his party even took power, Starmer became obsessed with cleansing Labour of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, shelving key pledges such as renationalising water and energy, scrapping tuition fees and ending the two-child benefit cap. In doing so, he turned his back on the most vulnerable in society, while promising many of the same xenophobic policies churned out by the Tories.
Labour’s betrayal
Once Starmer reached No 10, the prime minister’s office, he began delivering on his promises to “finally take back control” of UK borders by tightening the reins across “every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study”.
We knew full well what this meant: more racist surveillance, more profiling, and more criminalisation of people on the move.
Certainly, it did not take long for the new government to press ahead with its plans to institutionalise the targeting of migrants.
Just as with the horrific practices endorsed by previous home secretaries, the current leadership is ensuring that the journey to reach the UK becomes even more dangerous
Just as with the horrific practices endorsed by previous home secretaries, such as Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, the current leadership is ensuring that the journey to reach the UK becomes even more dangerous.
Earlier this month, for example, the European Commission approved the government’s “one in, one out” deal, giving the UK the power to send those who have crossed the Channel back to France.
This agreement was sealed following French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit last month. Imagine: the first European political leader to come to Downing Street since Brexit, and at the top of the agenda is how France and Britain will collectivise the targeting of migrants.
In exchange for France “taking back” some migrants, the UK will bring in asylum seekers with ties to the country. The very concept reeks of dehumanisation and treats people on the move as pawns to be exchanged across borders, all to appease the far right on both sides of the Channel.
Just days into the deal’s implementation, video footage went viral showing a migrant father and his son trying to board a boat to the UK, only to be aggressively shouted at and shoved back by French police brandishing teargas canisters. This already demonstrates the dehumanising nature of this “collaboration” with France, revealing the true face of so-called border security from Europe to the UK.
Dangerous deals
Beyond its agreements with France, the government is also entrenching its xenophobic agenda through the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.
While this is being pushed under the guise of stopping dangerous boat crossings and catching people smugglers, the reality is it will only further endanger desperate people.
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As experts have repeatedly pointed out, not only will these measures fail to stop people risking their lives to reach the UK, but people smugglers and gangs profiting from migrants will not be punished for their crimes. If the smugglers have never set foot on these shores, they cannot be prosecuted here.
Instead, the bill will further criminalise asylum seekers and other new arrivals, including through the use of counterterrorism laws.
For those in power, the safety of migrants clearly does not matter. The fact that in 2024 only two percent of arrivals to the UK came on small boats should highlight the disproportionate attention they are receiving under this government, just as they did under the last one.
The impact of such “priorities” is dangerous. It is emboldening Conservative and Reform UK figures like Nigel Farage to spew hysteria filled with unverified information.
Recently, headlines have been plagued with their claims that migrants are raping British children, and even that police are protecting “illegal migrants”, to name a few.
Resisting hate
The sad reality is that our current leaders are unlikely to learn the lesson that fuelling the flames of xenophobia will endanger more people and increase division in our society.
Yet this Labour government will likely peddle more anti-migrant rhetoric and policies, thinking it must appeal to voters by positioning itself further to the right.
I remember thinking Ed Miliband’s anti-immigration mugs promising to take “control” were as far right as Labour would pitch itself on this question, especially given that the Corbyn years saw a leader standing side by side with migrants and solidarity groups.
Now, we would welcome a mug over what the party is doing, because at least it can be smashed. Starmer’s anti-migrant promises, on the other hand, are being enshrined into law.
This does not mean that all hope is lost. It is the job of the wider public to force a change in course – those who choose love, community and solidarity over hate, as the dozens of anti-fascist protestors who far outnumbered the anti-migrant ones demonstrated when they came to defend asylum seekers in hotels.
They join the hundreds of thousands who have also been marching for an end to the Gaza genocide and for a free Palestine over the past two years. It is not surprising that the same government going after migrants is also attempting to repress people taking collective action against the UK’s complicity in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.
Whether through anti-fascist protests, organising in local communities to welcome migrants, establishing and joining new groups and political parties, or simply challenging those around us, there is always something we can do to oppose the current hateful trajectory.
Let those on the side of humanity be emboldened by all those on the front lines risking their freedoms to defend people seeking safety and resisting state repression – especially with more hate-filled protests ahead.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
