Yesterday I was in a room packed full of MPs imploring govt to rethink its proposed changes to ILR rules for migrants

Govt is planning to make unfair retrospective changes that are racist & classist

These would devastate the lives of many who have made this country their home

1. In 2009 I wrote this. I argued that Peter Mandelson's department “functions as a fifth column within government, working for corporations to undermine democracy and the public interest.”
This thread explains what I saw, and reaches a startling conclusion.🧵
www.monbiot.com/2009/05/04/m...

Hopefully more on this today at the oral evidence session focused on children and young people as part of the Home Affairs Select Committee's inquiry on routes to settlement: committees.parliament.uk/work/9389/ro...

Left: Labour's Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, "Illegal migration is ‘tearing our country apart’"

Right: PM of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, "Yes, my country has offered a path to regulate half a million undocumented migrants"

"This is the path we choose. Dignity, community and justice"

Brook House reported 76 use-of-force incidents in March 2025 alone - an average of two every day - alongside routine use of handcuffs and isolation.This is concerning given that the Brook House inquiry found 19 instances of human rights breaches in 2017.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

'Retrospectivity is un-British' - Labour MP @tonyvaughanmp.bsky.social told a packed Westminster Hall debate that plans to double migrants' wait for settlement must be abandoned.

'Let us be a country that always honours its debts, not just its financial ones, but its moral ones too'👏Thank you Tony

I mean just this bit speaks for itself, but the whole article is worth reading..

A reckless farce, which needs to be stopped now.

I wish visa fees were discussed more in the #earnedsettlement debate. ILR matters for security, stability and because it means an end to the visa fee cycle — not because it means the start of public funds. A Skilled Worker family of four will pay more than £35k in visa fees and IHS to get ILR.

Trying not to get my hopes up after today's debate on #earnedsettlement proposals but the staunch opposition from many MPs was encouraging - "You cannot talk about earning settlement if you keep moving the goalposts after the game has started."
Link to watch: www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

Reminder for my fellow UK dual/multi nationals that from 25 Feb 2026 you MUST travel into the UK on a UK or Irish passport.

You will no longer be able to travel to the UK on another passport — quite the change from the status quo, and problematic for those of us who travel frequently…🧵