𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Labour’s new equalities tsar has landed herself in hot water just weeks into her new role.

By attacking those who warn against the risks of mass-migration to the UK, Mary-Ann Stephenson, the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has catapulted herself – and the EHRC – into the political row that is going to dominate the discourse up until the next election.

The reason this matters is because voters have been before.

In 2010, then Prime Minister Gordon Brown branded Gillian Duffy a bigot for daring to raise her concerns about immigration.

Over the subsequent 15 years, millions have repeatedly voted for lower levels of migration, only to be met with record levels of net migration and an asylum crisis which has led to tens of thousands of illegal migrants being housed in taxpayer-funded hotels.

But now the head of a powerful quango is once again warning against “this idea that migration causes huge risks for the country, can make the lives not just of migrants to the UK, but of ethnic minority UK citizens, very, very difficult.”

This argument strikes at the very heart of an issue many have been talking about for years – community cohesion.

More aptly, the lack of focus on community cohesion has frayed the social fabric in the UK because concerns have been ignored or dismissed for so long.

Ms Stephenson talks about needing “honesty” in the migration debate.

But part of this is acknowledging the reality of the policy failures.

Millions voted for greater immigration controls, yet witnessed the so-called ‘Boris Wave’ where hundreds of thousands of predominantly low-skilled migrants arrived. It’s very hard to protect community cohesion when so many people feel like they’ve been told they are ‘racist’ or don’t quite understand the problem because they go against the grain, raising legitimate concerns. 

And before her appointment, Dr Stephenson lobbied the Government to abandon its “smash the gangs” policy and allow more asylum seekers into the country, comparing criticism of refugees to “hostile politics, racist rhetoric and demonising language of the past”.

This isn’t about demonising migrants themselves.

It’s about demonising the policy failures that have led us to this position.