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The cracks in Yvette Cooper’s new asylum policy are already showing – and it has only just been announced.

She has suspended the family reunion scheme for refugees, forcing them to meet the same income and language tests as economic migrants – and critics say this will push children into the hands of people-smugglers.

That is exactly what Cooper herself said back in 2021.

She warned MPs that shutting down safe, legal family reunion routes would drive desperate people into the arms of gangs.

Now she’s doing the very thing she condemned – at risk of the very same consequences.

What a difference it makes to be in government and not in opposition, it seems.

Cooper’s defence is that councils are under strain and smugglers are exploiting the system – but the reality is that people abroad are unlikely to know the fine detail of Home Office rule changes. If they are desperate enough to flee, they will still come.

And how many arriving in dinghies will ever even be asked if they risked the Channel because this scheme was halted? Would the government admit it if they did?

None of this was in Labour’s 2024 election manifesto. Keir Starmer and Cooper have no mandate to make it harder for refugees to reunite with their families.

So this isn’t just hypocrisy; it’s a policy riddled with contradictions from the start.

No wonder so many have stood up to attack the new policy.

The Guardian quoted them:

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Until now, family reunion has been one of the only safe and legal routes available that allows refugees fleeing war and persecution to be reunited with their partner and children.

Gunes Kalkan, the head of campaigns at the children’s charity Safe Passage, said the change would have “disastrous consequences” for unaccompanied children trying to join their families in the UK. He added: “We’re talking about children from conflict and high human rights abuse areas, such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Iran, who have been torn apart from family in the chaos.”

Mubeen Bhutta, the director of policy at British Red Cross, said: “Today’s announcement will separate families and cut off one of the only safe and managed routes for children to seek protection. The vast majority of people who use family reunion visas are children and women, often trapped in very dangerous situations.”

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), the chief executive of which is the former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, called the move “deeply alarming”. Flora Alexander, the IRC’s UK executive director, said: “Narrowing access for people seeking to reunite with loved ones is not a solution to system pressures; it risks pushing more people toward dangerous journeys and represents a step away from compassion and common sense.”

The SNP MP Pete Wishart told MPs he thought the government was encouraging Reform UK by refusing to speak up for asylum seekers. “Doesn’t [Yvette Cooper] realise that every time she moves on to the ground of Reform, all she is doing is further encouraging and emboldening them?” he said.

It is another step towards the far-right; another instance of Labour policy morphing to endorse Reform UK’s rhetoric.

And as such, it is insanity.

Vox Political has already pointed out (here and here) that voters prefer originals to imitations.

In making this choice, Cooper has pushed voters one step closer to a Nigel Farage government in 2029.
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