Migrant amnesty just won't work

13 April 2012

A study from the LSE commissioned by the Mayor, Boris Johnson, estimates that there are nearly three-quarters of a million illegal immigrants in Britain.

On the basis that two-thirds of all illegals end up in London, that means that the capital is home to half a million people who should not be here.

Granted, these figures are, however good the survey, uncertain: illegal immigrants live in the shadows.

And because the last Conservative government abolished the monitoring of entrance to and exit from the UK at points of entry, something the present government failed to reverse, there has been no reliable official means to establish how many people are here who ought not to be.

But given that hundreds of thousands of people are living and working in London without official recognition, the question is, what to do with them. Mr Johnson wants those who have lived here for several years to be given citizenship, on condition that they are able to support themselves and have no criminal record. On compassionate grounds, he has a point. Illegal immigrants are routinely exploited by unscrupulous employers and landlords, pay no tax and are fearful of reporting abuse to the police.

The case against an amnesty, however, is stronger. Regularising the position of illegal immigrants would inexorably act as a draw to others - the shambles of Spain's immigration record gives the lie to the notion that amnesties work. It would validate the odious work of the people-traffickers. It would mean admitting an unknown number of people, and their dependents, to the benefits of citizenship, an open cheque that we cannot afford.

The Government's record on returning illegal immigrants has been woefully inadequate - only 111,265 people have been returned in the decade to 2008. The positive response, as Mr Johnson suggests, is to tighten up existing inadequate border controls. But an amnesty is not the answer to porous borders.

FSA with bite

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is considering a report he commissioned from Sir James Sassoon on reform of the financial regulatory system.

The report calls for "fundamental reform" of the tripartite system of supervision established by Gordon Brown, with HM Treasury, the Bank of England and the FSA. Certainly, Sir James is right that any effective regulation must concentrate not only on the performance of individual institutions, but on larger problems affecting them all.

If this had been the case earlier, we might have identified the problems leading to the credit crunch, notably the over-reliance of so many banks on the money markets. But it would be a mistake to subsume the FSA into the Bank of England. The FSA head, Lord Turner, has already said that it will tackle banks' business models; his reforms deserve support.

Meanwhile, fallout from the collapse of the banking system continues, with institutional shareholders of Lloyds expressing real anger at the performance of the top executives which drove it to join forces with HBOS, and into the hands of government.

They are right to want the head of Sir Victor Blank, who brought a good bank to this pass; trouble is, the Government is now a 70 per cent shareholder, and Mr Brown has expressed support for Sir Victor. It's infuriating, but there is absolutely nothing they can do.

London pride

Constitutional expert Vernon Bogdanor has told MPs that being a Londoner is more important for many people in the capital than being English.

Given that a third of those living here were born overseas, that is perhaps not surprising.

Just like the cult of being a New Yorker, a city open to newcomers as well as the city's natives, this sense of identity is a unique and positive phenomenon. We are all proud of our anarchic, rich and diverse city. Small wonder we call ourselves Londoners first.

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