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Shabana Mahmood accused of ‘performative cruelty’ over latest attack on asylum seekers

On 29 November, home secretary Shabana Mahmood tweeted she would be ending “unrestricted” taxi use for asylum seekers:


In response, people have accused her of “performative cruelty”, arguing it’s yet another attempt from Labour to appeal to reactionary voters. This latest intervention also completely fails to address the reason why asylum seekers are reliant on the state for transport.

Performative from Shabana Mahmood

In response to her latest announcement, Shabana Mahmood attracted widespread criticism:

Many outlets are reporting on the story with headlines such as the following from Sky News:

Asylum seekers to be banned from using taxis for medical appointments

While this seems to suggest a complete ban on taxis for medical appointments, the stories themselves are clearer that taxis would be restricted to “exceptional” cases. Instead of taxis, asylum seekers would need to use public transport. While we shouldn’t view public transport as a punishment, there are far more effective things Labour could be doing to save money.

Solutions

The following issue is what Labour should really be tackling:

As Refugee Action wrote:

An entire workforce of people seeking asylum are ready to work – but they’re banned by the government. They have talents and experience. They want to contribute to society. It’s time to lift the ban.

Obviously, if asylum seekers could work while their claims were being processed, they wouldn’t have to rely on the state for transport. And arguably, keeping them reliant on the state is only creating an opportunity for right-wing politicians to drive negative sentiment against asylum seekers.

Refugee Action also said:

In 2020, we presented the Home Office with a petition signed by more than 180,000 people calling on the Government to lift the ban.

In March 2022, YouGov polling found that 81% of the public support the right to work for people seeking asylum in the UK.

It’s not just nonsensical, the ban is harmful to everyone involved. It takes the toughest toll on people seeking asylum, but the UK economy also misses out on tax revenue and much-needed specialists by leaving people frozen in poverty. The time has come to #LiftTheBan. Sign our open letter and add your name to our fresh calls.

You can sign that letter here.

Another issue for Shabana Mahmood is that the cost of taxis is in part a result of unscrupulous private companies:

The above tweet isn’t based on nothing, with Sky News reporting:

Taxi drivers said the system was open to “abuse”, accusing sub-contractors of inflating mileage, for instance by dispatching drivers over long distances to perform much shorter journeys.

One told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he had been dispatched from Gatwick to take an asylum seeker more than 50 miles away in Reading to an appointment only 1.5 miles from his hotel. A second driver was reportedly sent from Heathrow, about 30 miles away, to bring the same man back from the appointment.

Problems

The problem Labour have created for themselves is that they’ve made it clear their approach to migration and asylum is cruel by design. It paints asylum seekers as if they are living the high life – when they really are not.

As such, any announcement they make will be viewed through this lens. Especially when the announcement does nothing to address the underlying issues.

It is not dissimilar to the invented ‘scandal’ over Motability cars and the subsequent cuts. It is another policy that is effectively an attempt by Labour to win over far-right votes – while dehumanising disabled people to paint them as scroungers, living a life of luxury at ‘tax payers’ expense.

But the problem Shabana Mahmood and Labour have is this stuff won’t win over Reform voters who’ve been wooed by the far right. Those people don’t want sensible cost-cutting measures; they want mass deportations and benefit claimants to be living in even more abject poverty.

They’re obviously willing to pay through the nose to realise their ideology too, because mass deportations would cripple the economy – while penalising disabled people helps no one either.

Yet again, Labour have triangulated an asylum policy which will push voters away without solving the problem – all while further dehumanising desperate people whom the state already treats like criminals.

Featured image via Number 10 (Flickr) / Stephen McKay (Wikimedia)

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.