More than 400 Labour activists have written to Keir Starmer saying it is “inexcusable” for the party to remain so quiet on the issue of settled status for EU citizens in the UK, as this week’s 30 June deadline for applications to remain approaches. Signatories include Laura Parker, a prominent supporter of Starmer’s leadership bid, Gaya Sriskanthan, the national co-chair of Momentum, and Michael Chessum, national organiser of the leftwing pro-European party grouping Another Europe is Possible. In their letter they warn of dire consequences for tens of thousands of Europeans who they say will fall through the applications net and will have to rely on being treated “mercifully” by the Home Office. They also raise fears about millions more who have only temporary status and could face a hostile approach from government officials.
The activists say that “Labour has not said or done enough about this situation”. Privately those behind the letter believe that what they call “red wallism” – a fear of Labour being seen to be too pro-remain and too pro-immigrant by some working-class voters – is to blame. Calling for Starmer to urge the government to drop the 30 June deadline, the letter says: “The existence of the settled status application process is itself a betrayal of the promises that leave campaigners made during the EU referendum. “Again and again, European citizens were told that their right to stay would be automatic. Instead, more than five million people are being forced through a dysfunctional system. Soon, they will be brought under the regime of an increasingly digitised and aggressive hostile environment.” Labour said it was wrong to accuse it of inaction and that it was urging ministers to extend the settlement scheme for a limited period, until the end of September. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said: “The government has been warned that vulnerable individuals, children in care, and care leavers could fall through the cracks when it comes to applying to the settlement scheme with the deadline fast approaching. “The UK government has not done enough to prevent that from happening and it is only right that a short extension to the end of September be applied to make sure that the Home Office can do everything in their power to get all those eligible signed up. “We cannot have a repeat of the Windrush scandal, which also affected wholly innocent people in such a terrible way. The Home Office must learn from its past mistakes.”
• This article was amended on 28 June 2021. An earlier version said the letter’s author’s privately feared Labour being seen as “too pro-Brexit”; this has been corrected to “pro-remain”.