Angela Rayner Criticises Un British Immigration Crackdown

Angela Rayner has launched an outspoken attack on home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s controversial immigration crackdown.

The former deputy prime minister said the government was “moving the goalposts” by threatening to deport migrants who have been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

In her fiercest criticism of the government she used to be a part of, Rayner also warned that Labour is “running out of time” to deliver the change the public voted for at the last general election.

She made her comments at an event organised by the soft-left campaign group Mainstream on Tuesday night.

On Mahmood’s immigration shake-up, Rayner said: “Many people came here to Britain on the understanding that if they worked in the sectors where we needed them, obeyed the law and paid their taxes, they could stay.

“If we suddenly change that, it pulls the rug from under those who have planned their lives and commitments and are contributing to our economy and to our society.

“That would be not just bad policy but a breach of trust. The people already in the system – who made a huge investment – now fear for their future, they do not have stability and do not know what will happen.

“We cannot talk about earning a settlement if we keep moving the goalposts, because moving the goalposts undermines our sense of fair play. It’s un-British.”

Rayner was forced to resign from the cabinet last year after it emerged she had paid around £40,000 less than she should have done in stamp duty when buying a second property earlier this year.

She is still under investigation by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, amid speculation that she is plotting a leadership bid should Keir Starmer be forced to quit.

In comments which will be interpreted as an attack on the PM, Rayner said: “As a party, and as a movement, we cannot hide, we cannot just go through the motions in the face of decline.

“There’s no safe ground and we’re running out of time.

“The change that people wanted so desperately needs to be seen, it needs to be felt, and we have to show that it is a Labour government that will deliver it.”