Green peer condemns Home Office booklet for feeding into ‘right-wing tropes’ and misinformation
"Shabana Mahmood needs to apologise for this grave error of judgement"
Green Party peer Jenny Jones has condemned a new Home Office booklet aimed at migrants and asylum seekers which explains UK laws on offences such as rape, sexual consent, domestic abuse and child abuse.
The Home Office says the nine-page document is to help “understand what is expected of you when living in the UK” and the “rules and expectations are not just for people seeking asylum, they apply to everyone living here”.
The booklet seems to have played into the hands of right-wing politicians, with Nigel Farage weighing in to say: “Why are we letting these people into our country?”.
Meanwhile, GB News ran a segment where Martin Daubney claimed, in reference to sexual violence, that “there is a propensity for certain cultures to engage in certain crimes”.
The prime minister Andy Burnham has defended the booklet, saying that it is to “make explicitly clear what the UK law is and what the societal norms of the UK are” to migrants.
Speaking with Sky News, Baroness Jones criticised Labour for producing the booklet and Burnham for endorsing it.
Jones said: “This is a dangerous and unnecessary move by the Home Office which feeds into right-wing tropes and fuels the misinformation around migrants and people seeking asylum which has resulted in violent protests outside places where migrants are being housed, and attacks on migrants themselves.
She added: “Shabana Mahmood needs to apologise for this grave error of judgement and take responsibility for any future consequences.”
“We support consent education, but it needs to be universal. There is no evidence violence against women and girls is higher amongst migrants and people seeking asylum than among the general population.
“CPS research found that 30% of people do not recognise that being married or in a relationship means consent cannot be assumed, so why are only asylum seekers being told this is wrong?”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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