Councils Rebel Against New Home Office Rules

Local authorities, charities and homeless organisations have railed against new Home Office rules which risk ‘criminalising the most vulnerable’.


A homeless person is seen in Westminster, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain, April 29, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A homeless person is seen in Westminster, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain, April 29, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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LONDON (Labour Buzz) - Christmas is coming: the season of goodwill, but the Home Office isn’t joining in. A change to the law which would deport homeless immigrants has provoked a rebellion by Councils. Many have pledged to ignore the law which critics have dubbed, cruel. 

According to a report in the Guardian MPs, local authorities, homeless charities and anti-trafficking organisations have condemned the law. Under the new regime, any migrant found to be rough sleeping would see their right to remain removed. The law has been criticised as criminalising some of the most vulnerable in society. 

The majority of the UK’s migrant rough sleepers are to be found in London and the GLA is not playing ball. It says it will refuse to cooperate with the Home Office and has stated: “The GLA and its commissioned services will not collaborate with such draconian measures.”

Harringey council has also said it will not collaborate, as has Islington Council, while Southwark Council has voiced concerns. The councils argue that the ruling would compromise relationships of trust with vulnerable rough sleepers. 

Legal challenges 

The case is also likely to reopen friction between the government and the courts. The Public Interest Law Centre has launched a legal challenge against the rules. The policy, it says, will deter rough sleepers from approaching the service for support and could increase the number of people on the streets. They argue that the rules are so general that it could catch migrant office workers sleeping at their desks or late-night travellers sleeping at an airport before an early flight. 

Back in 2017, the organisation brought a successful legal challenge against another attempt to deport rough sleepers. 

The Guardian quoted one migrant rough sleeper who said: “I’m not allowed to travel, to work or to claim benefits. What are we expected to do? The government is making decisions for us. My life is no longer my own.”

However, from the government’s perspective, rough sleepers such as this would be classed as ‘refusing’ government help to which they are not entitled.

“For the small minority of migrant rough sleepers who continue to refuse government and local authority support and repeatedly engage in persistent antisocial behaviour, the new immigration reforms mean they could lose their right to be in the UK.”

Labour’s Apsana Begum condemned the move saying: “It effectively criminalises rough sleepers who were not born in the UK and adds to the draconian rules already facing those who are seeking asylum or permission to remain.”

Steve Douglass, Chief Executive of St Mungos said: “It is disappointing that this proposed change in approach has not been discussed with the homelessness sector, where there is a real concern that it will increase distrust of the Home Office’s intentions and could drive people with a legitimate right to remain away from essential services.”

The government has repeatedly expressed its desire to use Brexit to crack down on the power of the judiciary to correct bad mistakes. This case simultaneously shows why they might want to get rid of it and why it needs to stay.

(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)

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