General Election Watch: What on earth is going on?!

Welcome to this new series of blogs by Kerri Prince, BASW UK’s Public and Political Affairs Lead, who will be keeping track of what is going on in Westminster and how this might affect social work matters.

I was not alone in being shocked on 8th May when the Labour Party put out a press release that (now former) Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke had defected to Labour and will now sit and vote with Labour MPs in the House of Commons. Defections do happen in Parliament, but they’re often always met with shock, outrage, and a bit of glee depending on where you sit politically. This particular defection angered a lot of people including much of the Labour Party membership who feel that Natalie Elphicke doesn’t represent their views, and the Conservatives that she was leaving behind.

There have been lots of questions on why Keir Starmer would welcome someone with a voting record so contrary to Labour Party values into the fold. But I would imagine that Keir’s reasoning is because his goal is to win over as many former Conservative voters as possible ahead of the General Election, and by welcoming Natalie Elphicke into the party, he is saying that former Conservative voters (even MPs!) can find a new home in the Labour Party. Whilst the logic is evident, it has upset a lot of regular Labour voters. We’ll find out on polling day just how far that upset goes – or whether such a risky move has paid off.

There are also rumours swirling (as they always do!) that more Conservative MPs are set to defect to Labour. Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday may be one to watch if so…

Small boats, ‘illegal’ routes, and Rwanda

One of the reasons that Natalie Elphicke says she joined Labour is because of the Conservative’s failure on security of borders. Just two days later, Labour Leader Keir Starmer gave a speech about Labour’s plan.

The key points from Keir’s speech were:

1) Crackdown on criminal smuggler gangs facilitating the small boats crossings, with a new Cross-Border Police Unit and deeper security cooperation with Europe to get real-time intelligence.

2) End hotel use, clear the Tory asylum backlog, and speed up returns to safe countries, with more caseworkers and a new Returns and Enforcement Unit

3) Reform resettlement routes to stop people being exploited by gangs.

4) New agreements with France and other countries on returns and family reunion.

5) Tackle humanitarian crises at source helping refugees in their region.

Keir Starmer was also asked about the Rwanda scheme, to which he replied that there would be “no flights, no Rwanda scheme” if Labour were to win the next election and called the scheme a gimmick. This has brought clarity when there has been a big question mark over what Labour would do on Rwanda if they were to win the next election. There now seems to be clear blue water between the Conservatives and Labour on this issue.

Welcome to the latest champion for scrapping the two child cap…Suella Braverman?!

Just when we thought a politically shocking week couldn’t get more shocking, former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman came out in favour of scrapping the two-child limit on benefits. I had to check that it wasn’t a parody twitter account. Then I had to check it wasn’t April Fools Day. But no, Suella actually said It.

It’s brilliant that politicians who were previously against scrapping the limit are now changing their minds – but a little frustrating that Suella didn’t take this position whilst in Government and able to voice her thoughts at Cabinet level.

It is bold of Suella to take this position when even the Labour Party won’t commit to scrapping the policy, which keeps families in poverty. This throws the discussion back into the mix and keeps it on the agenda which is desperately needed. Could it add more pressure to the next Govt to finally take all the steps needed to eradicate child poverty?

We’ll be keeping an eye on this and through our work with other anti-poverty organisations we’ll keep the pressure on politicians.