Minister for Immigration Robert Jenrick resigned on Wednesday, throwing Rishi Sunak's Rwanda deportation plans into 'chaos'.

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Today, a reader argues that a further drift to the right over immigration from the Conservatives is a worrying symptom of where the government is leading the UK.

The Herald:

Doug Maughan of Dunblane writes:

"The resignation of Minister for Immigration Robert Jenrick reminds me of a remark he made on Radio 4 on 25 October, in response to a question about the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s response. He said: 'We can’t suggest there’s any reason why it happened, or any moral equivalence between the innocent civilians living in Israel and the Hamas terrorists.'

What arrant nonsense. If we don’t explore the reasons for the shocking attack on the Israeli kibbutzim we won’t find solutions that might prevent it happening again. And I’ve yet to hear anyone suggesting there’s moral equivalence between innocent Israeli civilians and Hamas terrorists, though many argue that innocent Palestinians deserve to live, too.

I’m alarmed by the growth of the right wing of the Conservative Party. It’s in line with a trend we’ve seen across Europe and the Americas, with right-wing populists stoking fear, division and hate. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman demonised refugees and claimed people who lived on the streets were making a lifestyle choice; Rishi Sunak was remarkably slow in sacking her, demonstrating his own weakness.

This Tory drift to the right dates back to Boris Johnson’s purge of moderates in September 2019, when the likes of Ken Clarke, Dominic Grieve and Rory Stewart had the whip removed and could no longer sit as Conservative MPs.

That rightward drift has accelerated as the Tories desperately seek to avert the electoral catastrophe that all the polls predict awaits them next year. Rishi Sunak is powerless to prevent that drift and is following on behind, trying to save his own position. If I was a betting man, I wouldn’t put money on him being successful.

We should all be concerned about where this Tory government is leading the UK. We intend to break international law on refugees, we give unquestioning support to war crimes in Gaza and, in the domestic arena, the government is severely restricting the right of workers to take strike action, so they’ll become forced labour.

For all its failings, at least we haven’t seen that hard-right drift at Holyrood, and the parliament has generally tried to be centrist and progressive. Surveys say that, in terms of societal attitudes, Scotland is very similar to England. Maybe it was, but hopefully we are now moving in a different direction."

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