Apsana Begum
Main Page: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)Department Debates - View all Apsana Begum's debates with the Home Office
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Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I stand here as a proud daughter of immigrants, proud to represent a constituency where we celebrate and cherish the contributions of migrants from all walks of life from all around the world, including many frontline workers and carers, and reject the hatred, division and intolerance of the far right who continue to target our area.
In debates and discussions about the proposed measures, the Government continue to point to the public consultation, which is closing on 12 February. However, on behalf of my constituents who have been in touch with me, I must take the opportunity today to ask the Minister the following questions. When will the impact assessments be published? Given the potentially wide-ranging impacts on all our communities and the economy, including on local authorities and voluntary service providers, how does the Home Office reconcile the potential impacts of the proposals on migrant families with the Government’s wider commitments to reduce child poverty and homelessness in particular, as laid out in their respective strategies published last year?
How can the Home Office justify retrospective applications of the changes to more than 1 million people who came to the UK on the understanding that they would be able to settle after five years? For the educators in my constituency, many of whom contacted me over the weekend, I ask: will the changes apply to all staff in the education sector? As we know, professional services staff in the education sector play an essential role, but their salaries make alternative settlement routes inaccessible.
Like many of my constituents, I am alarmed by the harm that the changes will inflict on our population. They will undermine integrity, integration, workforce stability, efforts on child poverty and our ambitions to tackle violence against women and girls. In the short time that I have today, I urge the Government to pause immediately the implementation of any changes. The number of Members in this room, the petitioners in the Gallery and the queues outside this Chamber today should send a loud and clear signal to the Government to pause and to ensure that they support transitional protections so that people in the UK are not retrospectively moved on to longer routes.
I also urge the Government to undertake an independent assessment, ideally by the Migration Advisory Committee, covering areas such as exploitation, domestic abuse, child poverty, workforce retention and local authority costs. Finally, I insist on a wider parliamentary debate and a vote, rather than major reform through immigration rules.