Awkward rows about who employs ‘cheap foreign labour’ aside, the immigration issue is going to blow up again in the next couple of weeks when the Immigration Bill reaches report stage in the House of Lords. There are two main problems with the legislation which could lead to some very awkward votes at this stage – and both are being highlighted in the current committee stage. The first relates to fines for private landlords who do not make adequate checks on tenants who then turn out to be illegal immigrants. It has been unpopular ever since it was announced, with landlords arguing that the government is trying to recruit them as border staff, but the criticisms gained greater currency when Mark Harper resigned as Immigration Minister after discovering that his own cleaner was working here illegally. Harper’s troubles suggest that if the Immigration Minister can’t tell whether his staff are illegal immigrants, then Joe Bloggs the landlord will find it even trickier.
Labour’s Baroness Smith has tabled amendments calling for pilots of these proposals, presumably to prove that they are unworkable and to force a government U-turn.
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