Questions for the contenders: Labour’s leader and deputy election

Posted: 12 January 2020

Pictures of the candidates for Labour leader: Clive Lewis, Lisa Nandy, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Keir Starmer, Jess Phillips, Emily Thornberry

Last September, members, trade unions and affiliates at Labour Party conference voted nearly unanimously to adopt our socialist, anti-racist policy in favour of migrants’ rights and free movement.

Now, members need to hear from the candidates vying to become Labour’s new leader and deputy leader. Will you champion these policies? What would you do for migrants’ rights if elected? We’re calling on all candidates to answer the following questions. Send your answers to us via info@labourfreemovement.org and we’ll publish them all. Please send us your responses by 6pm on Monday 27 January.

We will be sending this individually to each candidate, and we hope all our supporters will also encourage candidates to answer the call.


Please tell us your view on the following policies, endorsed overwhelmingly at Labour Party conference 2019. Will your leadership champion these policies? Will you stand up for them from opposition, in any election, and in power?

  1. Defend and extend free movement: opposing any reduction in the freedoms of UK and EU citizens to live, work, and access social security in each others’ countries, and any immigration system based on incomes, migrants’ utility to business, and number caps or targets.
    1. Will you stand for this policy if elected?
    2. Any comments you would like to share?
  2. Close every detention centre
    1. Will you stand for this policy if elected?
    2. Any comments you would like to share?
  3. Unconditional rights to family reunion
    1. Will you stand for this policy if elected?
    2. Any comments you would like to share?
  4. End “no recourse to public funds” policies
    1. Will you stand for this policy if elected?
    2. Any comments you would like to share?
  5. Oppose all Hostile Environment measures, use of landlords and public service providers as border guards, and restrictions on migrants’ NHS access
    1. Will you stand for this policy if elected?
    2. Any comments you would like to share?
  6. Equal voting rights for all UK residents
    1. Will you stand for this policy if elected?
    2. Any comments you would like to share?
  7. Please share your thoughts on these wider issues that our supporters also feel strongly about:
    1. Even after Brexit, the UK government looks set to participate in Frontex (the European border agency) and its “Fortress Europe” policies. Will you challenge these policies?
    2. Will you oppose the ban on asylum seekers’ right to work?
    3. Will you support an amnesty for undocumented migrants resident in the UK?
  8. Anything else you’d like Labour members, supporters and affiliates to know about what your leadership/deputy leadership would mean for migrants and migration policy?

Please send your answers to info@labourfreemovement.org by 6pm on Monday 27 January and we’ll publish them all. Thanks!