Politics

Boris Johnson's refusal to help child refugees shows the Tories have not really changed


With power comes the privilege of being able to be magnanimous.

If he so wished Boris Johnson could uphold the promise made by Theresa May and agree  to grant unaccompanied child refugees safe passage to the UK.

We are talking here about a few thousand young people in camps in Calais, Greece and Italy who have been separated from their families and are at risk of abuse and trafficking.

Any government which wanted to show it was capable of compassion could easily afford to make this gesture.

And any government that has an unassailable majority, is guaranteed five years in office and knows there are few votes to be lost from looking tough on immigration can easily afford to do nothing.

Johnson has chosen the latter option and will today order his MPs to vote against a Lords amendment carried in the name of Labour peer Lord Dubs.

Labour peer Alf Dubs has refused to be cowed by heavy-handed Tory tactics

Lord Dubs, who came to this country under the Kindertransport scheme,  came under pressure from three Government ministers to drop his amendment that reinstates the provision to help child refugees in the EU Withdrawal Bill.

The Government has told him they are not abandoning child refugees and they will reintroduce the protections in the forthcoming Immigration Bill.

Lord Dubs claims they are doing this so they can use the issue of refugees as a ‘bargaining chip’  in the trade talks with the EU.

Johnson can probably weather this storm without losing an sleep. 

How you treat refugees is unlikely to affect an election result. 

What it may to do is act as the first piece in the jigsaw as voters compose a picture of what this Tory administration is like. 

If Johnson makes a couple more decisions that smack of the nasty party then the public’s perception of his government could start to change.

Lisa Nandy’s leadership campaign is gathering momentum

We haven’t yet reached the stage of Nandymonium but there is no doubt that Lisa Nandy is having a good couple of days.

The Labour leadership contender  won the endorsement of the GMB union yesterday  and was the clear winner of a Channel 4 News focus group.

She could also benefit from Jess Phillips dropping out of the race as it allows her to own the message that the Labour Party must ‘change or die’. 

Though the jury is split on whether the Phillips’ vote will go to her or Keir Starmer.

Rebecca Long-Bailey has given her first major print interview to my colleague Pippa Crerar  and she comes across as a lot more human than her TV image suggests.

If you believe in the findings of focus groups then Long-Bailey may not be the public’s choice but she will take heart from a YouGov poll yesterday that showed Labour members ranked Jeremy Corbyn as the most successful Labour leader in the party’s history.

The two-time election loser was deemed a better leader than Clem Attlee, Harold Wilson and the serial winner Tony Blair which suggests the membership could be sympathetic to a continuity Corbyn candidate.

Today’s agenda:

10am – Lisa Nandy speech in London on the future of the welfare state.

11pm – Westminster Hall debate on smart motorways.

11.30am – Michael Gove takes Cabinet Office questions in the Commons.

12pm – Boris Johnson takes Prime Minister’s questions.

7pm – Emily Thornberry is interviewed by Andrew Neil on the BBC2.

What I am reading:

Heather Stewart in the Guardian on how, and why, Labour lost





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