Conservatives on East Sussex County Council adopted a motion at Full Council this week recognising and supporting all that the authority does to support migrants fleeing violence and persecution.
This followed a failed Sanctuary for Migrants motion by the Green Party which called on the council to become a member of the City of Sanctuary Local Authority Network, and to join the Migrant Champions Network; ideas supported by other opposition parties.
Conservative Cabinet Member Cllr Carl Maynard (Brede Valley and Marsham) spoke of the unwarranted and unnecessary cost that the Green Party motion would impose on the council and its tax payers. “That cost would come out of the very team that is already doing amazing things for the migrants who have come to East Sussex”, and that is why, he told the meeting, the Conservatives would not be supporting the original motion. “Any activity that takes people away from providing front-line services to those vulnerable people, is to their detriment.”
“This is not an opportunity to politicise the care of migrants here by virtue signalling and saying ‘we care more than you do’ -- that is a nonsense”, Cllr Maynard said. “And that is what I think is behind the Green Party motion. In East Sussex we have a culture of welcome for those seeking sanctuary in this county”.
Cllr Maynard implored the Greens who put the motion to “fully understand everything the county council has done and now is the opportunity to pay tribute to the council’s Officer team who deliver, day-in and day-out for vulnerable migrants in East Sussex.”
Fellow Conservative, Cllr Gerard Fox (Hailsham New Town) also used the debate to highlight what he saw as “the insanity of Liberal and Labour councillors supporting membership of an organisation that seeks to make it harder for Labour’s Home Secretary to address illegal migration which threatens to approach one million”.
Cllr Fox also drew attention to the fact that the UK has issued over 250,000 visas offering refuge under the Ukraine Scheme and welcomed 144,000 Hong Kong Chinese, saying that “we did this because we felt a moral obligation”. And Cllr Fox went on to say that, “we celebrate the contribution legal migrants make to our society in the NHS, higher education, and in the wider economy”.
Highlighting to fellow councillors the Migrant Champions Network’s aims, from its website, Cllr Fox said these sought to encourage councils to refuse to share local authority data with the Home Office; and seemed to consider passports and paperwork to be an irrelevance. He argued that such an approach “effectively de-legitimises the majority of legal migrants’ efforts in pursuing citizenship, and can only further inflame unwelcome tensions within our communities.”
He emphasised the importance of nation states controlling their borders “to maintain the confidence of their population to be able to demonstrate that migration is controlled.” He drew a contrast with the published Green Party policy on migration which sees a world without borders. “They seem to believe that there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant”, he added. “The Greens promote a policy which treats all new migrants (legal or illegal) as potential citizens, and want to dismantle the Home Office. The Green Party policy is neither credible or realistic in the world in which we live”, he said.
An amended motion, proposed by Conservative Cabinet member Cllr Carl Maynard, the Lead Member for Adult Social Care and Health, called on East Sussex County Council to: declare that we understand and embrace the important role it plays in welcoming people who are fleeing violence and persecution by offering them safety, a role carried out effectively and enthusiastically by East Sussex County Council.
Conservative Cllr Philip Lunn (Crowborough South & St. John’s) noted how the amended motion was succinct and covered in a few lines what the Green Party had taken a-page-and-a-half to express. He said that perhaps this was because “East Sussex had been a front-runner in providing the services that the original motion refers to.”
Endorsing the words of his colleague, Cllr Lunn said that East Sussex did “all that is necessary and those sentiments cascade down through all tiers of local democracy in the county.” He added that the amendment would highlight all the good work that has been underway by the county council teams, and “will continue to do all the things that are important for those who need the services that we provide”.
After further debate, the Conservative’s amended motion was passed although failed to gain support from a number of opposition members.
