‘Border Security Command’ motion: vote against!

Posted: 23 September 2024

We are speaking to union and local party delegates at Labour Party conference, asking them to vote against the ‘Border Security Command’ motion on the agenda this week. Get in touch now to help us leaflet and lobby the conference – let’s stand up for safe routes and sanctuary!

The Tories created one of the most inhumane, regressive border regimes in Europe, scapegoating migrants for the misery caused by austerity. Their agenda has been praised by the far right across Europe.

The “Border Security Command” motion at this conference is asking Labour conference to endorse the Tories’ immigration policy. It would mean:

This will do nothing for working class people. It will not build a single home, add a penny to anyone’s wages, or give anyone security. Its only effect is to cause death and misery, and to divide workers against each other. By pandering to their political agenda, it would give people like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson more ground.

Harsher crackdowns have failed, only leading to more deaths. The motion dodges the only real solution: safe routes and sanctuary for refugees.

Already, trade unions and constituency delegates are preparing to oppose the motion. Please join them – and make sure you are on conference floor when the motion comes up. Get in touch to help leaflet before the vote.

Contact: info@labourfreemovement.org /// www.labourfreemovement.org

Update 26/09/2024

Victory – the “Border Security Command” composite motion was withdrawn by its proposers! See here for our response.

To maintain a record for future reference, we reproduce the motion text below:

Border Security Command

On the 18th July, the UK hosted the European Political Community summit, which committed to deepening international co-operation. Conference notes that small boat crossings and Europe-wide people smuggling gangs are undermining our border security and costing lives.

Over the last 14 years of Tory rule, immigration has soared despite increasing public disquiet around this problem.

Rather than a serious plan to confront this crisis, the Conservatives have offered nothing but desperate gimmicks over the past fourteen years. With the arrival of this new Labour Government, Conference welcomes the scrapping of the Rwanda scheme as a first step on this path to reform.

Conference now calls on the Labour Party to:

  • Introduce the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to establish a new Border Security Command and deliver new counter-terror powers to tackle organised immigration crime
  • Hire additional caseworkers to clear the Conservatives’ backlog and end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.
  • Negotiate additional returns arrangements to speed up returns and increase the number of safe countries to which failed asylum seekers can swiftly be returned.
  • Act upstream working with international partners to address the humanitarian crises which lead people to flee their homes, and to strengthen support for refugees in their home region.

Mover: Wellingborough and Rushden CLP

Seconder: Hammersmith and Chiswick CLP