Homes for Influencers, economic crime wrangling and the latest Labour news

“He can’t seriously be asking Ukrainian families who are fleeing Vladimir Putin, who’ve left their homes with nothing, to get onto Instagram and advertise themselves in the hope that a British family might notice them.” This is how Lisa Nandy reacted to the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme after Michael Gove announced further details in parliament yesterday. Branded a “DIY asylum scheme”, it was confirmed that Brits seeking to be sponsors will have to name the family they want to house – at least in this ‘first phase’. Labour has not called for visas to be waived altogether and the party supports basic checks, but Nandy highlighted that refugees still need visas requiring “50-page forms” to be completed and those fleeing war are asked for entirely impractical things such as water bills and mortgage documents.

Ministers will be delighted that in mere hours over 43,000 people had applied to the programme, allowing the government to talk about how it is enabling the generosity of the British people. Whenever Keir Starmer criticised the handling of the pandemic, Boris Johnson would express outrage and ask why the opposition leader was not supporting our beloved NHS. A similar trick was used by Gove yesterday, when he responded to Labour’s concerns over the new scheme by conflating the public with the government, saying: “I’ve had it up to here with people trying to suggest that this country is not generous.” (He also said the hostile environment policy started under Labour. While this angers some Labour activists, the words were indeed first used approvingly by Liam Byrne, then immigration minister, in 2007.)

I am expecting to see some bleary-eyed legislators when walking around parliament today. They were up late rushing through the economic crime bill, which is about to become the Economic Crime Act. Labour and the Tories both wanted new laws to tackle Russian ‘dirty money’ to be passed urgently, but they had been locked in battle over the grace period in the legislation, with the opposition arguing that to give foreign owners of UK property six months before the measures come into force would be self-defeating. Ultimately, the government defence that Labour’s 28-day suggestion would open up the new ‘register of overseas entities’ to legal action won out, but ministers instead brought in a new disclosure requirement forcing overseas entities disposing of UK property to provide information about its beneficial ownership.

Also on LabourList, Elliot has interviewed Labour MP Ian Byrne on his right to food campaign. “Hunger is a political choice,” he says. “We need to keep our people afloat.” We have the latest on Labour’s upcoming internal elections, for the ruling body, policy forum and new students body. After balloting members, Open Labour has released its full slate of endorsed candidates, including Ann Black, Katherine Foy and Jermain Jackman. The deadline for nominations is on June 17th. The sole Open Labour-backed member of the national executive committee (NEC) member for the moment released a particularly interesting report yesterday, in which she wrote that she was “disturbed to discover that emails which the sender believes to be private are treated in the same way as public postings on social media” in disciplinary proceedings. “A word of advice: if you get angry about repeated requests from “Keir” or “Angela” for money or support, watch what you say,” she advised members.