Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to the Immigration Bill, said:

“This out of touch Government is failing to make the immigration system fair and effective for everyone and this Bill won’t address the most important concerns around illegal immigration, or the impact of the exploitation of low skilled migration on jobs and wages.

“We need more action on illegal immigration. Measures such as checks on driving licences and bank accounts sound sensible and build on changes Labour made before the election. But these won’t deal with the chaos at border control and reduction in enforcement which mean that fewer illegal migrants are being stopped at the border, fewer are being returned, and fewer foreign criminals are being deported since the election.

“The Bill includes nothing to deal with delays in electronic checks and bureaucratic failings. And Ministers are still refusing to ditch the divisive ad vans even after admitting they led to only one person coming forward, and even after the Advertising Standards Association has said they were misleading.

“We will look at the detail of other measures in the Bill including whether proposals are workable. Landlord checks are sensible in principle, but the Government has said nothing about how they would work in practice, or how they could be enforced without our proposed statutory register of landlords. Many of the measures that were briefed around the NHS are not in the Bill and the Government needs to listen to the serious concerns of doctors about those proposals.

“Nor has the Government done anything to address the impact of exploitation of immigration in the labour market. This Bill doesn’t include action to improve enforcement on illegal working or gang masters, close loopholes in the minimum wage, or prevent employment agencies only using foreign workers.

“This Government is still failing on immigration even by its own measures, with net migration now rising again. Theresa May has a history of promising big and failing to deliver. We will look at the detail of this Bill but it looks once again as though it is failing to address the basics.”

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