THE OBSERVER: As London mayor's plan is attacked by Labour and his own party, a rift with Cameron looms
Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, was branded 'naive' yesterday after raising the prospect of an amnesty for illegal immigrants, a move that puts him in open opposition to Conservative leader David Cameron.
Johnson's plan to study the potential benefits of an amnesty was attacked by the government's Phil Woolas, who said it could lead to more people being exploited by traffickers. It was also ruled out by Johnson's own party, as shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve warned that an amnesty would be 'massively counter-productive'.
Woolas, the Immigration Minister, said: 'I think this is naive of the mayor. His comments might start with the best of intentions but will lead to more people-traffickers making more money and exploiting more vulnerable individuals.
'The UK Border Agency is committed to stopping illegal migration. We are putting in place the biggest shake-up of the immigration system for 45 years and are seeing the results. We are putting more resources into expelling foreign lawbreakers and last year we removed one person every eight minutes.'
Johnson's comments risk opening a rift between himself and Cameron, with whom he clashed on the issue of an amnesty earlier this year. It will do nothing to quell speculation that the maverick mayor is positioning himself as a rival to his party leader, particularly at a moment of Tory weakness in the polls.
Grieve told The Observer yesterday: 'Our policy remains unchanged. We're not in favour of having an amnesty, because the evidence is overwhelming that amnesties encourage more people to come into this country as illegal immigrants. We've considered this very carefully and remain firmly of the opinion that to have an amnesty at the present time with the current state of our borders would be potentially massively counter-productive. >>> David Smith | Sunday, November 23, 2008
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