The UK Prime Minister may have the regal touch in northern England, but he’s been wrong-footed on the constitutional challenges posed by the Celtic Alliance of first ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, argues KENNY MacASKILL
THE government is facing extreme difficulties in getting its “stop the boats” Bill through Parliament. Its formal title is the Illegal Migration Bill, but since ministers have decided that the mode of transport you use by itself makes your application illegal, no-one is taken in by their nonsense.
The Bill is not meant to be policy in the sense of a workable plan to cut the number of people arriving on dangerous small boats. Ministers claim that harsh treatment, rejection of all applications made in this way and the threat of deportation will all have a deterrent effect.
This is based on no evidence at all. It completely ignores the levels of desperation that drive people to leave their homes to make this journey on the open seas. It ignores too the fact that most applications are granted.
Labour cannot win another election by accommodating racism, instead it should focus on finding solutions to social concerns that too often seek scapegoats, writes DIANE ABBOTT
ROY WILKES takes issue with those on the left who argue immigration lowers wages — dividing resident and migrant workers only strengthens capitalist exploitation
The government’s latest asylum proposals abandon labour movement values and fuel division by aping Reform UK, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
DIANE ABBOTT warns that Shabana Mahmood’s draconian asylum proposals fuel racist scapegoating and risk demoralising Labour’s base – potentially paving the way for Farage to No 10


