Prime Minister Andy Burnham has called on the Labour party to stop the 'politics of poison seeping into our streets' after a series of anti-migrant protests in Portsmouth. He told MPs that the Labour Party's mission will be to counter 'fear with positivity and hope.'
Arrests and injuries at protests
Arrests were made and police officers injured after hordes of masked men blocked road access to the Port of Dover on Saturday (September 5). Official vehicles were damaged and several police officers were hurt in a stand-off with right wing protesters in Portsmouth on Sunday (September 6).
More than 200 protesters attempted to stop coaches which were due to take migrants for processing after around 120 people arrived in a boat near the Isle of Wight in the early afternoon on Sunday.
PM's message to Labour MPs
“We’ve got a fantastic opportunity in our hands to change this country for the better. We go into the autumn, in really good heart, with a spring in our step,” the Prime Minister told the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) at a closed-doors meeting on Monday September 7.
“There’s a lot at stake and it requires us to counter fear with positivity and hope. We have a responsibility in the times that we’re living in. It’s a solemn responsibility to prevent the politics of poison seeping into our streets. We are here to speak to the politics of hope and of positivity.”
Setting the tone ahead of party conference in the autumn, the Prime Minister said his government would be “boldly, authentically, confidently Labour” and focus on making the public believe that politics can work to improve their lives.
Government and opposition response
“We have to fulfil our historic mission all over again and bring hope to a divided country. To lift people and make them feel that things are possible. That we can make people’s lives better,” he said. “Never accept the narrative that there’s nothing we can do.”
Policing minister Sarah Jones warned earlier there was “no excuse” for threatening behaviour and any demonstrators who crossed the line from peaceful protest into illegality would “face the full force of the law”. She told the Commons that Patriot Platform, the group which claims to have organised the demonstration in Dover, was “far-right racist”.
Responding, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the right to protest “should never be violently exercised”, but criticised the Government’s record on migration. “If they’re serious about fixing this and ending public anger, they need to get serious about the measures – leave the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) and deport illegal immigrants as soon as they arrive. Then people won’t be so angry,” he said.
Investigation and calls for action
The demonstration at Dover appeared to have come as a surprise to the authorities, with Kent Police claiming it was “spontaneous”. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary has launched an investigation into potential assaults and criminal damage following the unrest in Portsmouth.
Labour MP for Dover and former migration minister Mike Tapp called on Mr Burnham to convene a Cobra meeting on what he described as a “national emergency” over the small boat crossings. “We have to gain control of the borders, and of course we’ve made progress but by convening Cobra, all of the mechanisms of government can come behind this problem and we can do our best to solve it,” he told Sky’s The Cathy Newman Show. “It’s uncontrolled borders, although we have gained some control.”
