On 27 May Boris Johnson revealed he was unaware of the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy that denies social security to migrants and their children.
At a committee hearing, Labour MP Stephen Timms raised the plight of a family in his constituency left destitute and without support during the coronavirus crisis, due to NRPF. Johnson appeared surprised that they could not claim Universal Credit, stated that those “who live and work here should have support of one kind or another”, and promised to review the situation.
NRPF is a condition applied to most migrants’ visas and Leave To Remain permissions. It means they cannot access most benefits, tax credits, or social housing. It throws workers and their families into destitution and desperation. Its racist cruelty even extends to denying means-tested free school meals to their children.
The policy also undermines workers collectively — British citizens and migrants alike. When one group of workers know they will have no support if they lose their jobs, they are more vulnerable to heightened exploitation and mistreatment by employers. With the threat of poverty, hunger and homelessness hanging over them, they may feel less able to stand up to their bosses, or to quit and look for other work. In turn, this undermines pay and conditions in that workplace and across the labour market.
For socialists, it is important to oppose these holes in the social safety net for two reasons. We demand humane support for all those in need, and we also recognise that universal and generous social security strengthens the collective hand of the working class vs our employers.
The only credible socialist and anti-racist response is therefore to demand an end to NRPF, and the extension of social security to all documented and undocumented migrants. Johnson’s slip provides an opening to advance that demand: we must grasp it firmly.
The Labour Campaign for Free Movement (LCFM), and other migrants’ rights organisations, are raising the call. But, despite the 2019 Labour Party conference’s overwhelming vote to support scrapping NRPF (as part of the migrants’ rights policy we proposed), the Labour leadership has not gone beyond asking the government to temporarily waive NRPF during the pandemic. That would bring welcome relief, but clearly does not go far enough.
Starmer’s is not the first Labour leadership to cop out over NRPF. The 2017 manifesto under Corbyn endorsed NRPF. Even after Labour conference voted to support ending it, the 2019 manifesto was silent on the matter. In fact, it was New Labour which introduced the policy in its modern form in 1999. Only some individual MPs, including Kate Osamor and Nadia Whittome, demand the party’s democratic policy: a permanent end to NRPF.
Even more need, therefore, for campaigning pressure from below — on both the Labour leadership and the government — despite the constraints of lockdown.
• LCFM has called a #scrapNRPF selfie campaign on Twitter: see here
• See labourfreemovement.org for more
• Scrap the health surcharge for everyone: see here
