Hostile Office Weekly: New PM, Same Migration Playbook
Burnham takes office, digital ID is ditched, and Lewisham leads on sanctuary — yet the Home Office signals business as usual for anti‑migrant policy.
This week saw Andy Burnham finally be appointed Prime Minister, as he revealed his policy priorities and his new Cabinet. There’s also a legal opinion on the process of the Earned Settlement policy development, and a big win in London as Lewisham Council voted to refuse to support immigration raids, in a blow to the Hostile Office.
Andy Burnham becomes PM
On Monday, Andy Burnham, MP for Makerfield, was finally appointed Prime Minister by the King. With it he made some broad statements on his vision as Prime Minister, including increased regional devolution of powers, as well as some specific policies, before revealing a slightly reshuffled Cabinet selection. While migration hasn’t figured heavily in the new PM’s agenda so far, it doesn’t look like a major departure from his predecessor.
Ditching digital ID
A major positive has been Burnham dropping digital ID plans, primarily on the grounds of the financial cost of the scheme, as he has spoken of redirecting these resources to tackle the cost of living crisis. Darren Jones MP, who led on digital ID under Starmer’s Government, was also sacked from the Cabinet.
Regardless of Burnham’s specific reasoning, we welcome the end to plans to introduce digital ID, mandatory or otherwise, because of the intensified system of surveillance targeting migrants that the scheme would bring in. This is in addition to the issues of a lack of genuine consultation on the proposals, as they were essentially brought in following lobbying from Labour-aligned think tanks, instead of going through a proper policy development process. However, the GOV.UK app, GOV.UK OneLogin and the Government Wallet development will continue.
You can read more about our work opposing digital ID proposals here.
Mahmood stays on in the Home Office, while Mike has Tapp-ed out
Amidst the Cabinet reshuffle to form Andy Burnham’s Government, Shabana Mahmood has stayed on as Home Secretary, despite mooted moves to the Chancellor seat. This signals a continuity on anti-migrant migration policy for the new Government, with Mahmood given free reign to implement an agenda that has included the Immigration and Asylum Bill, the Earned Settlement proposals, and making asylum temporary.
Mike Tapp, however, has lost his role as Minister for Migration and Citizenship. Instead of an ideological shift away from anti-migrant cruelty and racism, it comes a month after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called on then-PM Starmer to sack Tapp for breaking the Ministerial Code. Tapp had publicly said that he opposed applying the Earned Settlement changes to migrant care workers, which goes against the principle of collective responsibility, meaning all ministers speak with the same voice.
The new ministerial appointments in the Home Office are Jo White and Anna Turley. Turley previously said as Chair of the Labour Party that Labour must tackle immigration in a way that is true to Labour’s values, and legitimised “concerns about [people travelling in] small boats and [people seeking asylum living in] asylum hotels”. White has similarly spoken of people being “fed up with the pressures that uncontrolled immigration has put on our local infrastructure” and supported steps to “take back control of our borders”, in anti-migrant statements in Parliament.
While Burnham’s initial statements have focused less on migration than his predecessors, therefore, it seems that the same cruel policies will continue.
Legal opinion criticises Earned Settlement policy development
The Skilled Worker Justice Alliance (SWJA) have published a public law analysis of the Earned Settlement proposals, criticising the process of policy development that has led to Impact Assessments being conducted after a decision has already been made to implement a policy.
This flows from a Court of Appeal ruling that states that assessing the impacts of a projected policy must be made before and at the time the policy is under consideration, not afterwards. For the Earned Settlement proposals, however, the Impact Assessments are still yet to be published, alongside the responses to the Government’s consultations on the proposals.
Lewisham says no to raids
Lewisham Council in London successfully passed the motion tabled opposing immigration raids in the borough and to strengthen support for migrant communities. The vote is a first in the UK, and a hugely positive step in making our communities genuinely safer.
This will include strengthening migrants’ access to information about their legal rights and legal support. The Council will also work with other councils to expand this ‘anti-raids sanctuary corridor’, as well as migrant and law centres, anti-raids networks, and faith and community groups.
The motion takes the phrasing of ‘sanctuary’, developing City of Sanctuary’s Boroughs of Sanctuary scheme for local authorities to cover all migrants, not just those seeking or who have been granted asylum. For some, this has drawn parallels with the US, where some cities have for years declared themselves sanctuary cities from the US ICE.
Councillors also spoke to the racial profiling and sense of fear that immigration raids create and rely on. Mayor Liam Shrivastava also highlighted the negative effects for people who are victims of modern slavery and trafficking to seek help, as the nature of the immigration enforcement system leaves people at risk of losing their status and being targeted for deportation if they report abuse.
What this means now is that council officers will review the statutory and discretionary duties of the council - i.e. the areas where they have a legal duty to carry out a function versus those that they can choose - and how and where the Council has been cooperating with Immigration Enforcement. Since the Labour Government came to power in July 2024, licensing has been a major area of collaboration in targeting workplace raids. Data-sharing and service agreements with Immigration Enforcement will be reviewed, and Council money and resources will not be used in raids.