Appeal to LGBTQ+ Tories to Condemn Braverman over Gay Persecution Comments

GUARDIAN EUROPE: UK home secretary in US to call for rewriting of UN refugee rules so they are ‘fit for the modern age’

Suella Braverman will say the refugee convention has expanded the number of those who may qualify for asylum to ‘unsustainable’ levels. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
LGBTQ+ Conservatives have been urged by the Labour MP Ben Bradshaw to condemn Suella Braverman’s speech in which she will say that Britain should not grant asylum to people who are simply fearful of persecution for being gay.

The former minister made the call ahead of a speech the home secretary is due to make in the US where she will make her case for the rewriting of key international refugee rules so they are “fit for the modern age”.

In a move to alter an agreement that undermined UK plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the home secretary will argue that the United Nations 1951 refugee convention must be reformed to tackle a worldwide migration crisis.

She will argue that case law arising from the convention has lowered the threshold so that asylum seekers need only prove that they face “discrimination” instead of a real risk of torture, death or violence. As case law has developed, she will say, there has been “an interpretive shift away from ‘persecution’, in favour of something more akin to a definition of ‘discrimination’.” » | Ben Quinn, Political correspondent | Tuesday, September 26, 2023

This woman is truly shameless. She is herself from immigrant stock. This country was kind enough to give her family asylum, but now she wants to deny the same kindness and compassion which her family received to people who are so often persecuted in their homelands. In fact, many of them are in danger of being put to death.

Has this woman no shame? Has this woman no feeling? Has this woman no compassion? Has this woman no mercy?

This dangerous woman has managed to climb the social ladder. Apparently, she now lives in Harrow, having been born in Wembley. But one thing she hasn't managed to do: adopt a British mentality and character. We Brits have been famous for our fairness and compassion, especially to people in distress and danger. Are we now really going to allow people like this to destroy Britain's once proud reputation?

Her tough ideas and attitudes towards gays are really out of place in modern Britain. However, Uganda, I feel absolutely sure, would welcome her and her tough ideas! – © Mark Alexander

This Horror Story Visited on South Wales by Suella Braverman Could Be Coming to a Street Near You

THE GUARDIAN: A far-right backlash against the home secretary’s asylum policy has brought a deluge of hate to a peaceful Welsh town

Wales hotel protesters Composite: Guardian Design
Take what follows as a little local horror story, if that makes you feel better. But I see it as a parable, a lesson in how toxic things can get when some of the basest ingredients in politics are blended just so and left to fester. Our setting today is a town a few miles outside Swansea, yet with only a few changes it could come to the end of your road.

“I was always proud to say I was from Llanelli. Now? It’s worse than embarrassed. I’m ashamed.” That’s not a disgruntled neighbour speaking, but the leader of Llanelli’s council. And what’s upsetting David Darkin isn’t some new eyesore, but the forces gathering on his streets. In the privacy of his office, he likens what’s outside to the 20th century’s darkest decade.

Just a few months ago, no one here would summon up the ghost of 1930s fascism. But that was before this spring, when the town’s top hotel was taken over by the Home Office to house about 250 asylum seekers – and all hell broke loose.

The Stradey Park Hotel is described by local people as “the jewel in Llanelli’s crown”, the place where everyone wanted to hold their weddings. Even today, as workmen pull out the building’s innards in preparation for its new role, it leaves a splendid shell: a cream-coloured Edwardian mansion tucked into a hillside, with views over the Gower coastline.

Now it is in the hands of Suella Braverman. However hard the home secretary huffs and puffs about cutting hotel bills for asylum seekers, she is now one of the biggest hoteliers in Britain. To house a huge backlog manufactured by the Tories, Braverman has just shy of 400 hotels, creating a chain more than twice the size of the Hilton group in the UK. » | Aditya Chakrabortty | Thursday, August 24, 2023

Boris Johnson Criticism of Archbishop of Canterbury ‘a Disgraceful Slur’

THE GUARDIAN: Prime minister accused Justin Welby of having ‘misconstrued’ Rwanda asylum policy

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, giving the Easter morning service at Canterbury Cathedral on Monday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Boris Johnson’s criticism of the archbishop of Canterbury over his comments on the UK government’s Rwanda asylum policy is a “disgraceful slur”, a senior Church of England official has said.

The prime minister accused Justin Welby of having “misconstrued” the policy of sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Sources close to Johnson said he accused the senior clergyman of being “less vociferous” in his condemnation of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, than he was in his attack on the asylum policy.

lank> The criticism from Johnson came in a private address to Conservative MPs in parliament after he was forced to apologise repeatedly over the fixed-penalty notice he received for breaching coronavirus laws.

The Church of England’s head of news, John Bingham, said if the reports of Johnson’s behind-closed-doors comment were true it was a “disgraceful slur”.

The archbishop of Canterbury and the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, publicly condemned Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as an “act of great evil”. » | Tobi Thomas and agency | Wednesday, April 20, 2022

The Guardian View on Deaths in the Channel: The Tide of Xenophobia

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: The government must stop pandering to anti-migrant sentiment and come up with a humane policy that meets its international responsibilities

‘Mr Johnson and his home secretary, Priti Patel, reveal no desire to escape the trap of xenophobic rhetoric.’ Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament/AFP/Getty Images
Boris Johnson’s government must develop a new approach to asylum as a matter of urgency. The deaths of 27 people who were attempting to reach England in a small boat on Wednesday have prompted an outpouring of distress. No one wants the Channel to become a graveyard, and the stricken faces of the people interviewed by journalists in northern France over recent days have brought home their sheer desperation to millions of Britons.

But unless Mr Johnson and his most senior colleagues and advisers take the lead in setting out a different direction, there is no reason to think that this tragedy will mark any kind of turning point. At the moment, the government appears trapped in a snare of its own making – along with the section of the public that it took with it when ministers decided to talk and act tough on asylum seekers. This is what led to the shameful situation in which the main response to this week’s tragedy is to blame the French. The government push for morally and legally dubious legislation designed to create an even more hostile environment is justified by claims that the number of people seeking asylum is overwhelming. » | Editorial | Thursday, November 25, 2021

Channel Deaths: Priti Patel Disinvited to Meeting with France

THE GUARDIAN: Boris Johnson’s public letter to Emmanuel Macron on Channel drownings deemed ‘unacceptable’

Priti Patel makes a statement on the 'small boats incident in the Channel' in the House of Commons. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament/AFP/Getty
The French government has withdrawn an invitation to the home secretary, Priti Patel, to attend a meeting about the Channel boats crisis after Boris Johnson called on France to take back people who crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats.

In an escalation of the political crisis after the deaths of 27 people in the Channel, the French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has written to Patel to say a meeting on Sunday would proceed without British involvement.

It follows Johnson’s letter to President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday night setting out five steps to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s tragedy. The letter was sent publicly as a tweet in time for the front pages of UK newspapers and French officials confirmed Macron had not seen the letter before Johnson tweeted it.

Darmanin told Patel the letter from Johnson to Macron, suggesting France take back people who cross the Channel, was a “disappointment”.

Referring to Johnson’s posting of the letter on social media, he added: “Making it public made it even worse. I therefore need to cancel our meeting in Calais on Sunday.” » | Rajeev Syal and Jon Henley | Friday, November 26, 2021

Crise des Migrants : Macron dénonce les méthodes «pas sérieuses» de Londres, Johnson assume : Boris Johnson a demandé à Emmanuel Macron dans une lettre publique de reprendre les migrants arrivant en Angleterre depuis la France. En réaction, Gérald Darmanin a annulé la participation britannique à une réunion de crise. »

France-U.K. Acrimony Over Channel Crossings Deepens: The French responded angrily to Boris Johnson’s suggestion that France take back migrants who reach Britain, and rescinded an invitation for a top British official to discuss the crisis. »

Aus deutscher Sicht:

Paris und London müssen kooperieren! : Seit dem Brexit ist das Klima zwischen Paris und London rauher geworden. Der Geist der Partnerschaft hat sich verflüchtigt. Das kostet Menschenleben. »

Hundreds of Thousands of EU Citizens in UK Risk Uncertain Status from 1 July

THE GUARDIAN: Deadline to apply for settled status two weeks away, as academics warn that vulnerable groups face loss of rights

Academics are sounding the alarm about the hundreds of thousands of EU citizens in the UK who face falling into legal limbo on 1 July with their right to rent a home, work or continue in retirement at risk.

With just 13 days to go before the government’s deadline for EU and EEA nationals and their children to apply for settled or pre-settled status, a report from UK in a Changing Europe warns of the dangers ahead for those who do not apply by 30 June.

The academic campaign group is concerned that some who have applied but are still awaiting a decision from the Home Office – including children and the retired – could face difficulties if they cannot prove their status when they try to access the NHS or travel. » | Lisa O'Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Wednesday, 16 June 2021