Why is Labour sticking up for foreign criminals?

That the left-wing Labour MP Clive Lewis should have organised a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel opposing the deportation of Jamaican criminals hardly comes as a surprise. Being against the removal of foreign nationals, almost irrespective of what they have done to deserve it, is pretty standard fare for a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs – the leftist caucus associated with the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott. That Lewis’s letter was signed by around 60 Labour MPs – easily more than a third of Labour backbenchers and twice the total membership of the Campaign Group – was more surprising.

To see the names of mainstream Labour figures such as Tony Lloyd and Barry Sheerman listed as backers tells us that opinion on such matters in the party has shifted decisively since the Labour administration of Tony Blair brought in the UK Borders Act 2007, under the auspices of which the deportations were arranged.