Lord Coaker on Rwanda decision: Labour will “stand up for human rights”

Labour shadow home office and defence spokesperson Lord Vernon Coaker said that he was “proud of the fact that the Labour Party would “stand up” for human rights if elected, at a LabourList fringe event on Tuesday morning.

Lord Coaker was speaking alongside Public and Commercial Services Union head of bargaining Paul O’Conor, National Education Union president Emma Rose, and Fire Brigade Union national officer Riccardo la Torre. 

His comments come after Labour confirmed at its annual conference in Liverpool that if elected it will abandon the Conservative government’s Rwanda migrant sentencing scheme, even if it is approved by the Supreme Court. Lord Coaker said the move “symbolises the difference we will make”.

Now from @Vernon_Coaker at @Labouralist’s panel on Safe Passage – an effective way to stop the boats. In partnership with @pcs_union, @fbunational and @NEUnion #LabourConference23 pic.twitter.com/v8vPvlj2zL

— LabourList (@LabourList) October 10, 2023

Rose said she was pleased of this, that “ending Rwanda is positive, I have never felt more ashamed that seeing men being dragged by their hair to be taken to Rwanda… It shows where this government is at that they have gone back to court again”. 

Rose called on Labour activists to push for a more humane asylum seekers policy, saying “we have to build a mass movement, get along to your meetings, organise within your CLP that you want Labour to adopt this”.

Lord Coaker noted that this issue of asylum seekers was “not an easy area for us, the right-wing attack and onslaught on us is constant and will grow in the run up to the election”. 

La Torre agreed, saying that “you can feel how nervous the Labour Party are on this subject… the space that has been left to debate on the facts, the truth, and reality of the situation isn’t there”. 

The shadow home office and defence spokesperson said that a Labour government would prioritise forging “new international agreements” with countries like France, “coming to an arrangement on the number of asylum speakers” to enter Britain. 

O’Connor noted that he was pleased that Labour was focussing on signing agreements with other countries, saying “I think working internationally will work to tackle the issue at its core”.

However, he noted that the focus on cracking down on criminal gangs was not enough, arguing that “we spend billions and billions of pounds cracking down on criminal gangs… We have to raise our aspirations about what we can do.” 

O’Connor argued that PCS’ recent report,  outling a safe passage policy proposal, was the “only alternative to Rwanda policy”, and calling for the government “to dismantle the hostile framework”. O’Connor claimed that “this is the only answer to stopping the boats in the English channel”.

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