Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Heating up asylum debate is an own goal

The government's asylum bill is designed to sharply polarise the politics of asylum ahead of the general election, says Katwala.

Heating up asylum debate is an own goal

THERE has been a new Sunday morning routine in our house this year. Since my ten- year-old daughter got into football by watching Euro 2020 and the Lionesses triumph in the women’s Euros, the alarm goes off at 7.30am so we can get up to watch the early morning repeat edition of Match of the Day without knowing the football scores.

So I was one of many parents who had to explain what had happened to the weekend’s football highlights: a 20-minute programme with no commentators after the BBC’s suspension of host Gary Lineker led to a mutiny among pundits, players and BBC sport staff. My daughter’s first reaction was that cutting out the pundits – “the boring bits” – could make the programme better. But she also wanted to know when Lineker will be back on screen. It was not straightforward to explain how the arguments about refugees and history, free speech, politics and BBC impartiality risked cancelling the football – but this battle of Match of the Day will be among the first political arguments that many teenagers hear about too.


Gary Lineker Photo by Hollie AdamsGetty Images Gary Lineker (Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

The BBC struggles in the crossfire of the culture war and scored several own goals. It was odd for the main news bulletins to treat the early skirmishes over Lineker’s tweets as more newsworthy than the government’s asylum bill. The management’s decision to suspend the presenter escalated that twitterstorm into a farcical crisis. BBC impartiality matters, but a fatal lack of clarity and consistency meant that panicked responses to political pressure lacked legitimacy, either with BBC contributors or the general public.

Lineker’s challenge to the government’s asylum bill as an “immeasurably cruel policy” argued this was being pursued in language “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”. Reaching for the Nazi analogy was ill-judged, challenging hyperbole with hyperbole. There was, though, plenty to criticise in how home secretary Suella Braverman made the case for her bill. With 40,000 people crossing the Channel last year, Braverman told the Commons that a 100 million people might come to claim asylum in Britain, increasing this to “likely billions more eager to come here if possible” in a newspaper article. These lurid exaggerations reflect a deliberate political strategy to escalate public perceptions of threat. Research consistently finds that threat perceptions are a strong driver of anti-immigration public sentiment. But this is irresponsible language from a home secretary who is responsible for countering extremism too. Threat perceptions of ‘out groups’ are also the key risk factor in proactive far-right efforts to stoke protest into disorder and violence.

Suella Home Secretary Suella Braverman listens as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference following the launch of new legislation on migrant channel crossings at Downing Street on March 7, 2023 in London (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The polarisation over asylum played out at last Tuesday’s (7) GG2 Leadership and Diversity awards too, which exemplified the cocktail of progress and polarisation in the politics of diversity and migration. Prime minister Rishi Sunak won the double this year. It must have been especially easy, in this 24th year of the awards ceremony, for the judges to decide that both the “hammer” award for breaking the glass ceiling and the top place on the GG2 Power List were bound to go to the first British Asian prime minister. Grant Shapps made the Tory case for pride in a multi-ethnic Britain, reminding guests that David Cameron had been right in his prediction, at the 2014 edition, that the Conservatives would provide Britain’s first Asian prime minister. Labour MP Barry Gardiner, part of the judging panel, was sincere in noting the historic nature of the prime minister’s achievement, yet gave an impassioned speech about the clash with the values of the asylum bill. This brought a riposte from Conservative MP Shailesh Vara, arguing that partisan clashes over the issue should be kept for parliament, not a community celebration.

Sunak Rishi Sunak speaks in a summit at the Elysee Palace on March 10, 2023 in Paris, aimed at mending relations following post-Brexit tensions, as well as improving military and business ties and toughening efforts against Channel migrant crossings. (Photo by Kin Cheung - Pool/Getty Images)

LEAD Comment Sunder Katwala byline pic 1 Sunder Katwala

What risks getting lost in heated controversies about language was the content of the proposed legislation – especially with the government proposing to pass the bill at breakneck speed through the House of Commons this week. The provisions of the bill would – in future – rule inadmissible the vast majority of asylum claims granted in the UK over the past two decades. In seeking to make asylum claims permanently inadmissible, even when there is no realistic prospect of removing somebody from the UK, the bill breaches the core principles of the UN refugee convention, a key point made by the UNHCR, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Church of England and, despite the political polarisation, editorials in The Spectator and The Times.

Sunak may be, by instinct, more of a political bridger than a polariser, with less appetite than his home secretary for embracing the culture war. Yet this bill is designed to sharply polarise the politics of asylum ahead of the general election. The next parliament will inherit a different challenge: how to repair and reform refugee protection in this country, to counter the increasingly angry politics of asylum with an orderly, workable and humane agenda capable of rebuilding political and public consent.

More For You

modi putin

Before their formal meeting, Putin offered Modi a ride in his Aurus limousine.

X/@narendramodi

Six key takeaways from the SCO summit

INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi met Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China.

Modi pressed for ending the Ukraine conflict at the earliest, reaffirmed India’s long-standing ties with Russia, and discussed trade and border issues with Xi.

Keep ReadingShow less
Afghanistan earthquake

Afghan volunteers and Taliban security personnel carry an earthquake victim evacuated by a military helicopter from the Nurgal district of Kunar province onn September 1, 2025.

Getty Images

Afghanistan earthquake kills more than 800, thousands injured

A MAJOR rescue operation was underway in Afghanistan on Monday after a powerful earthquake and several aftershocks destroyed homes in a remote mountainous region, killing more than 800 people, according to Taliban authorities.

The quake struck just before midnight and was felt as far as Kabul and in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ganpati festival

The Ganpati festival celebrates Ganesha as the god of new beginnings, and the god of wisdom and intelligence. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Hindu community centre in London damaged in fire after Ganapati Visarjan event

A HINDU community centre in east London caught fire on Saturday evening, causing major damage to the building. The London Fire Brigade brought the fire under control and confirmed that no injuries were reported.

The incident took place at the Shree Sorathia Prajapati Community Centre on Cleveland Road in Ilford, which had been decorated for a Ganapati Visarjan event attended by members of the Hindu community.

Keep ReadingShow less
Modi ,Xi & Putin

Narendra Modi talks with Vladimir Putin and Xi jinping ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025 at the Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Centre in Tianjin on September 1, 2025.

Getty Images

SCO declaration slams Pahalgam attack, calls for united action on terror

Highlights:

  • SCO condemns terror attack in Pahalgam and echoes India’s stance on “double standards”.
  • Leaders call for justice for perpetrators of attacks in Pahalgam and Balochistan.
  • Declaration criticises Israeli military strikes in Gaza causing civilian casualties.
  • SCO stresses UN’s central role in global counter-terrorism strategy.

THE SHANGHAI Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Monday condemned the terror attack in Pahalgam and agreed with India’s position that “double standards” in tackling terrorism are not acceptable.

Keep ReadingShow less
Police arrest five after anti-asylum protesters target Heathrow hotel

Anti-migrant protesters demonstrate outside the Cladhan Hotel on August 30, 2025 in Falkirk, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Police arrest five after anti-asylum protesters target Heathrow hotel

BRITISH police said they arrested five people on Saturday (30) after masked men tried to force their way into a hotel used by asylum-seekers, a day after the government won a court ruling on the use of another hotel to house migrants.

Two groups of anti-asylum protesters marched to the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Heathrow Airport before some demonstrators tried to break in, London's Metropolitan Police force said.

Keep ReadingShow less