This week, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced Labour’s latest ‘reforms’ to Britain’s already broken asylum system. From forcing judges to interpret the European Court of Human Rights judgements differently, to “more pressure to deport families with children” and even confiscating jewellery of asylum seekers to cover the costs of processing their claims, the measures were met with alarm and disgust, by human rights groups and even dissenting Labour MPs declared their shock and anger at the “performative cruelty” of it all.
Some were celebrating, however: the EDL’s leader, Tommy Robinson, declared victory, “the Overton window has been obliterated, well done patriots!” clearly delighted at the far-right’s ability to outmanoeuvre those in power to set the terms of political discourse. The Conservatives committed to voting with Labour to pass the reforms in case Labour MPs rebelled.
Many of us have watched in horror the ramping up of ICE raids and deportations, family separations in the US. How alarming that our government has seen this and felt spurred into a perverse race to the bottom.
Labour may couch their cruelty in a polite commitment to getting Britain ‘back on track’, but make no mistake that these policies are based on the same racism, xenophobia and indignity that we are seeing across the pond. Public conversations about asylum and immigration cannot be separated from the culture wars on ‘British values’ and othering that relies on scapegoating people seeking asylum and cultivating a British identity that is overtly based in white nationalism.
“I watched as a heavily pregnant woman prepared to board a boat. I felt the weight of guilt and shame, that I could get back into my warm car and make the safe passage back to the UK.”
Labour’s attacks on asylum seekers should not come as a surprise after Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a speech in August declaring Britain as becoming an “island of strangers” – a quote by Enoch Powell known for his racist and anti-immigrant crusades in the 1960s. He later said he “deeply regretted” using the phrase and had not intended to echo Powell’s speech.
Many have already pointed out the fact that these policies have nothing to do with addressing the root causes of the problems our government is attempting to resolve, namely, economic precarity and a rapid slide by the electorate towards Reform.
In the face of such brazen dehumanisation, it is also clear that there is a hope by those in charge that we will accept the terms of the debate that they set out blithely; that we will become simply numb or acclimatised to the daily indignity that floods our newsfeeds every day. That mobs attacking asylum hotels are ‘have justifiable concerns.’ It is our responsibility to ground our response to Labour’s grim policies in one of compassion and resistance to these culture wars waged against the most marginalised.
When the far right sets the terms of the debate, the centre can never win. Agreeing to play on their field means losing the game before the whistle is blown. We have seen how a failure to set a progressive agenda in the face of a far-right resurgence has torpedoed liberal and centre-left governments across Europe. In France, Germany and Italy, far-right political parties are either in power or on their way. That Labour cannot see (or does not care) that their attempts to mollify Reform are only setting themselves up for electoral carnage.
It feels like every year or so, there’s a new round of cries to “ban the burka!”
Shabana Mahmood and the Labour Party may believe that boasting about their intention to deport children projects a strong government that makes ‘tough choices.’ In reality, it reveals the overwhelming weakness of this current government: no vision, no strategy, and no heart. It is revealing of a government who, as they flounder in their scuppered promise of ‘change’ has chosen culture wars, authoritarianism and cruelty over any meaningful political alternative to politics of misery and cynicism that dominates Britain in 2025.
It is increasingly clear that the state will not come to save us, so we must work to build out new visions and communities of shared safety and support in the face of growing threats from both the far-right and those in power. Of course, there is also potential within the political realm; Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s clear-eyed rebuke of Labour’s egregious political failings feels like a balm to the current political climate in the UK. Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory in the New York Mayoral race earlier this month shows not only a blueprint for progressives wanting to reverse this slide into the politics of misery, but also that a politics based in solidarity can win.
The question we must ask ourselves is what kind of society we want to be part of? What kind of communities do we want to lead and create in the face of the looming intersecting crises we are facing? In the face of such political nihilism, it is up to us to protect each other as best we can and not to give in to the despair that Labour, Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson are relying on. All we have is each other.
South Asian women like me are – understandably – scared for our safety.
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