Chris Huhne urges Parliament to reject changes in immigration rules, and wins government concessions

Opening a debate obtained by the Liberal Democrats, Chris Huhne, Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary, accused the Government of introducing new rules that would be unjust and ineffective.

Mr Huhne said that there been a lack of proper consultation with MPs on the proposals, which would have banned people who made even an honest mistake in their UK visa applications from reapplying for a visa for up to 10 years. Even families and those who were under 18 when making the application would have been affected.

Chris Huhne explained that:

“The changes will introduce automatic penalties for breaches of rules which, in the view of the Liberal Democrats, will prove to be counter-productive - far from saving official time, they will mean more appeals to the courts. The essential issue is whether people who breach entry rules, perhaps by making a mistake, or whose agents breach entry rules, must pay for that with an automatic - I repeat, automatic - ban on the right to reapply for entry for at least a year and for up to 10 years, regardless of circumstances, regardless of fault, regardless of understanding.”

Mr Huhne discussed the difficulty of enforcing the rules regarding potential deception, commenting that,

“One of the most difficult things to prove in any court of law is what is going on inside the defendant’s head. It is certainly no more possible to infer from a potential immigrant’s mistake on a form that he or she is deceiving people than it would be fair for me to accuse Home Office Ministers of deception every time their Department made a mistake. Of all Departments of State, surely the Home Office - found, only this week, to have the lowest capability level of any Department - ought to understand better than most the difference between an honest mistake and a deception.”

Mr Huhne went on to underscore that the changes will be a blunt instrument in the detection of wrong doing. These changes, he said, constituted:

“Immigration rulings by rote; there is no room in these rules for any discretion. It does not matter whether someone has overstayed by one day or 10 years, or whether they have made a typo on a form or they have used false documents. That rigidity and automaticity will not save official time, however."

Simon Hughes also spoke in the debate, arguing that the rules were unjustly biased against immigrants. He commented that,

“I apply the same principles to immigrants as I would apply to people of this country in respect of any other administrative procedure. That must be the right way.”

In his speech responding, Immigration Minister Liam Byrne conceded that the Government had made a mistake and said that the automatic penalty would be waived in the case of families and those under 18 when the error was made.

Responding, Chris Huhne welcomed what he described as an “exceptionally adroit U-turn - the Government’s second today, following the Chancellor’s U-turn on compensation for those caught up in the doubling of the 10p tax rate.” But he said he would still like to know, ahead of the deferred division on the new rules, whether there would be any remaining transitional problems. He said the Liberal Democrats would look at these before deciding whether to still vote against the proposals the next day.

In the vote the next day the Liberal Democrats continued to oppose the new immigration rules, but they were approved by 51 votes to 354.

Click here to see the voting record