THE Tories’ plan to force landlords to check tenants immigration status will lead to “widespread discrimination,” shadow home secretary Andy Burnham warned yesterday. 

Included in the Immigration Bill to be debated in Parliament tomorrow is the controversial right-to-rent scheme, which would make renting homes to “illegal immigrants” a criminal offence. 

Labour frontbencher Mr Burnham said the policy “seeks to propagate immigration myths rather than slay them.

“In practice, it could end up making Britain a more hostile place for anyone with a foreign-sounding name,” he wrote in this week’s Independent on Sunday.

The scheme, which was rolled out in the West Midlands last year as a trial, would see more than 40 per cent of landlords less likely to rent to non-British citizens. 

More than a quarter of those quizzed by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) said they were reluctant to have people with foreign names or accents as tenants.

Mr Burnham said: “On this evidence, right to rent in its current form could lead to widespread discrimination. 

“Of course, we have come a long way as a society since landlords displayed unwelcoming notices in their windows.

“The new document checks could become the modern equivalent of the ‘no dogs, no blacks, no Irish’ signs and, by being more insidious, such casual discrimination will be far harder to challenge.”

The Leigh MP also took the chance to denounce the Prime Minister’s hypocrisy after David Cameron’s speech at the Conservative Party conference mentioned the obstacles black and Asian youths face finding work.

He said: “If he truly believes what he was saying, why on earth is he about to legislate to make the same everyday racism far more likely to happen in the housing market?”

Tweeting on Sunday about the policy, JCWI wrote: “Right to rent encourages discrimination and hostile environment for all migrants seeking to access private rental market.”

Author Will Black echoed the sentiment, tweeting: “Tories claim Corbyn is going back to the ’80s — but they’re taking us back to the 1950s.”