THE INDEPENDENT: Today, all four major candidates in London's mayoral election join religious and business leaders in proposing a radical solution for illegal immigrants
A formidable coalition of businessmen, politicians, religious leaders and community workers will pledge their support tonight for an amnesty for illegal immigrants who have been resident in the UK for several years and can pass strict tests to prove their contribution to British society.
All four of London's main mayoral candidates – including, against the official policy of his party, the Tory candidate Boris Johnson – will back the campaign to offer undocumented workers the chance to be integrated into mainstream society and obtain papers allowing them to work and pay taxes legally.
In an unprecedented move that will exert even more pressure on the Government to heed calls for an amnesty, they will be joined by an array of influential figures from outside the political world, including Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain and Stephen O'Brien, one of the City's leading businessmen.
"Enormous untapped potential and appalling waste is taking place right in front us," Mr O'Brien, chairman of the lobby group London First and former chief executive of Business in the Community, said yesterday. "Business leaders recognise that the case for an amnesty is both principled and pragmatic. The economic and moral case for liberating this army of workers from the underground economy is irrefutable." Mayoral Candidates Unite in Call for Illegal Immigration Amnesty >>> By Amol Rajan | April 9, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback)
