Deputy PM attacks govt drive against immigrants

Guardian News and Media/London

Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats, has launched a strong attack on the government’s “go home” campaign against illegal immigrants, suggesting it was out of step with the “decent” centre-ground tradition in British politics.

In a phone-in on Radio 5 Live yesterday, the deputy prime minister said he did not condone people breaking immigration laws but that he objected to the tone of the campaign launched by the Home Office.

He also said it would be hard for his ministerial colleagues in the coalition to persuade him that the campaign should be extended.

Clegg, who returned to work on Monday after a break in Spain, was speaking only 24 hours after Downing Street indicated that David Cameron, the prime minister and leader of the Conservative party, the senior coalition partner, strongly supported the campaign and would be open to it being extended nationwide.

The campaign is running in six London boroughs featuring leaflets and posters with the message: “In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest.”

The leaflets are still in circulation, but the two advertising vans that drove around displaying large versions of the poster have been withdrawn.

“I was very surprised to see these two vans apparently driving aimlessly around north London,” said Clegg, who has not criticised the posters publicly before, although his aides made it clear that he disapproved.

“I don’t think it was a very clever way of dealing with this issue of those who are living in this country who aren’t entitled to.”

Clegg said he was in favour of taking a hard line against law breaking, but that he was concerned about the tone of the campaign. “You can enforce the law effectively without instilling a tone which is unsettling to communities, particularly to mixed communities.”

Clegg said he had discussed the matter on Monday with Mark Harper, the Conservative immigration minister, whom he described as “a very good guy”.

Clegg said he told Harper the Home Office should instead focus on improving border checks. “I don’t happen to think having a couple of vans driving around north London is the way of inspiring public confidence that we have an immigration system that is working properly,” Clegg said.

“I have said to the Home Office in very clear terms ... that the effort should be spent not on vans drifting around north London, but actually reinstating exit checks, which I think were wrongly removed in the past and which we are committed to - and this was on my personal insistence - reinstating as part of our coalition agreement.”

Some critics have claimed that the Conservatives have been promoting the hardline anti-illegal immigration message for party political reasons.

Clegg hinted that he agreed, but he argued that “decent” people in the centre ground would object. “The Conservative party three years ago presented itself as green, compassionate and a centre-ground party, and now appears to be resorting, if you like, to some more traditional, Conservative, right-of-centre signature tunes, Europe, immigration, welfare, Europe, immigration, welfare,” he said.

“Important though those issues are, I remain of the view, as a centrist politician, as someone who is determined to anchor the government in the centre ground, that actually the vast majority of decent people in this country are in the centre ground, and want to see politicians governing from the centre, not from either the right or the left.”

Clegg went on: “Unless there’s overwhelming evidence that this (campaign) is a really effective way of bolstering public confidence in the immigration system, and bearing down on illegal behaviour in the immigration system, I’m going to need a lot of persuasion that this is something we want to continue.”

Clegg spoke out as a YouGov poll for the Sun suggested that, by a margin of 47% to 41%, voters support the campaign.