Chilling: Home Secretary condemned for speech on immigration

The Home Secretary was accused of “vilifying migrants” in an “inflammatory” and “divisive” address at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

May used the speech to outline drastic changes to the UK’s immigration and asylum rules, most of which were widely condemned. Her speech was, in fact, so right-wing that Nigel Farage even accused her of stealing from him. “Nice to see Theresa May repeating so much of what I have said,” he tweeted.

May said high immigration made it “impossible to build a cohesive society”. She added that migration meant that “wages are forced down” and “some people are forced out of work altogether”.

“Not every person coming to Britain right now is a skilled electrician, engineer or doctor,” May said. “The evidence – from the OECD, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee and many academics – shows that while there are benefits of selective and controlled immigration, at best the net economic and fiscal effect of high immigration is close to zero.

“So there is no case, in the national interest, for immigration of the scale we have experienced over the last decade.”

The Home Secretary also ruled out a common European approach to immigration and asylum policy, saying she would not sign up to such a policy “in a thousand years”.

The Government will also launch their first-ever annual asylum strategy next year.

Part of that strategy will be making sure people “leave the country quickly” if the country they were seeking asylum from becomes safe to return. May also dismissed calls that Britain was built on migration.

“Compared to the countries of the New World and compared to the countries of Europe with their shifting land borders, we have until recently always been a country of remarkable population stability.

“The people who have moved here down the generations have played a massive part in making this country what it is – but we need our immigration system to continue that British tradition of gradual, moderate, sensible change.”

Simon Walker, the general director of business group the Institute of Directors, challenged May’s speech and claimed the body was “astonished by the irresponsible rhetoric and pandering to anti-immigration sentiment from the Home Secretary”.

Walker added: “The myth of the job-stealing immigrant is nonsense.

“Immigrants do not steal jobs, they help fill vital skill shortages and, in doing so, create demand and more jobs. If they did steal jobs, we wouldn’t have the record levels of employment we currently do.

“It is about time the Home Office stopped undermining business and our own government’s efforts to secure productivity growth. Political leaders should stop vilifying migrants and acknowledge the hugely important contribution they make to this country’s economy.”

May’s speech was widely seen as her opening salvo in her bid to replace David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party. The Home Secretary is one of the favourites to succeed the Prime Minister when he stands down.

Maurice Wren, from the Refugee Council, was scathing of the Home Secretary’s address to conference, saying her “clear intention to close Britain’s border to refugees fleeing for their lives is thoroughly chilling, as is her bitter attack on the fundamental principle enshrined in international law that people fleeing persecution should be able to claim asylum in Britain”.

He went on to accuse May of being “out of step with reality”.

“Everyone would like to see the number of asylum claims in Britain go down: but only because that would mean the world had become a safer, more peaceful place. As it stands, the Home Secretary’s ambitions are simply out of step with reality: the world is facing one of the worst refugee crises we’ve ever seen,” he added.

Scottish politicians were quick to criticise May’s speech. Stuart McDonald, the SNP’s spokesman on immigration, accused May of “dog-whistle” politics, where her message is hidden and heard only by those who agree with it. “This may have been a speech to the Tory conference but Theresa May’s dog-whistle rhetoric was clearly designed to pander to a Ukip audience in the increasingly bitter battle to succeed David Cameron,” he said.

“It was about as inflammatory and divisive a speech a Home Secretary could make. Theresa May’s whole approach to her job is to pull up the drawbridge and put her fingers in her ears.”

Willie Rennie from the Scottish Liberal Democrats demanded Ruth Davidson “speak out against Theresa May’s outrageous speech”.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the speech was “contemptuous, cynical and clumsy”.

The National View, October 7: The scary thing is, many will like what May says