Members on the London Assembly today backed calls for a scheme to allow so-called irregular migrants “who have been in the UK for many years” to earn UK citizenship.
Assembly Members were voting on a motion brought put forward by Green Party AM Darren Johnson which called on the Mayor to join the Assembly in urging the UK Government to introduce “a one-off, time-limited, earned regularisation of suitable irregular migrants, many of whom live and work in London, which would allow those who have been in the UK for many years to be admitted to a two-year pathway to citizenship.”
The motion was backed by a coalition of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green AMs with sources close to Labour attempting to embarrass Conservatives on the Assembly for voting against the motion alongside BNP member Richard Barnbrook.
However Conservative AM Roger Evans told MayorWatch his group “believe the policy is unworkable without more details and stronger border controls to deal with the inevitable spike of people who would be tempted to follow the regularised migrants. In fact I expressed my sympathy and offered to discuss more constructive ways forward with the other parties. The government have not implemented the scheme for similar reasons.”
Evans added that “Barnbrook voted the same way but I don’t see why his decision should dictate the position taken by anyone else.”
