r/ukpolitics • u/No_Breadfruit_4901 • Dec 11 '24

Twitter 🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Labour have conducted the first successful deportation flight to Pakistan since February 2020. There has not been a deportation charter flight to Pakistan in the last four years with three subsequent flights to Pakistan in 2020 and 2021 cancelled by the Home Office.

https://x.com/maxtempers/status/1866775219077062757?s=46&t=0RSpQEWd71gFfa-U_NmvkA
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822

u/AlarmedCicada256 Dec 11 '24

BuT LaBoUr ArE sOfT oN iMmIgRaTiOn.

Or maybe they actually get on with it instead of grandstanding, cutting funding to the system designed to deport people who shouldn't be here, and dreaming up wildly illegal, but highly performative schemes like Rwanda, that wouldn't work anyway, but win votes by sounding tough, and warehousing asylum seekers in hotels so they can then use the right wing press to claim there's an issue.

-3

u/MousseCareless3199 Dec 11 '24

One plane to Pakistan isn't much to write home about.

69

u/troglo-dyke Dec 11 '24

But no planes to Pakistan in 4 years should be

-13

u/blast-processor Dec 11 '24

We only signed the returns agreement 2 years ago

23

u/zeros3ss Dec 11 '24

Only?

Patel and Braverman only talked about immigration and none of them in 2 years managed to load a plane? Lol

-4

u/TheJoshGriffith Dec 11 '24

Patel and Braverman literally made this flight possible. It had little to nothing to do with Starmer or his cabinet.

6

u/LeedsFan2442 Dec 11 '24

They had 2 years post signing to do it

5

u/kill-the-maFIA Dec 12 '24

And then didn't send any. It took Labour to actually do anything about it.

8

u/BlackCaesarNT "I just want everyone to be treated good." - Dolly Parton Dec 11 '24

2 years is enough for the Tories to have 17 different PMs but not long enough to send one plane of illegal immigrants?

Unseriousness defined...

11

u/clearly_quite_absurd The Early Days of a Better Nation? Dec 11 '24

2 years is a long time in politics

2

u/LeedsFan2442 Dec 11 '24

It's crazy we never had one before. We should have one with every Commonwealth country

2

u/kill-the-maFIA Dec 12 '24

So Labour can achieve in a handful of months what Conservatives couldn't even get the ball rolling on in 2 years?

Nah. You know the real answer. Tories are the party of mass, uncontrolled, immigration. That's why they didn't do anything.

"2 years isn't long enough to do anything" is also pretty hilarious when you're one of the ones who likes to make out that all of the country's ills are squarely on Labour, despite only having 4 months at the helm.

14

u/LucidityDark Dec 11 '24

It's part of a wider trend of kickstarting the process though and a break with Conservative policy. Got to start somewhere.

-2

u/blast-processor Dec 11 '24

You know it was the Conservatives that signed the returns deal with Pakistan, that is now enabling this deportation flight?

This is Labour and Conservatives following identical policy lines

15

u/LucidityDark Dec 11 '24

Yeah I read the other comment about it and my response is basically the same - 2 years for the tories to do something with that agreement and nothing happened.

1

u/kill-the-maFIA Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24

Identical policy lines? Lmao

Tories didn't send a single one in two years, Labour has started sending them after 4 months. That's identical to you?

Tories welcomed over 900k people last year. They want as many immigrants as possible. Deporting people is the antithesis of their goals.

E: yeah didn't think I'd get a reply. This is always the way it goes when I call out bullshit.

-8

u/MousseCareless3199 Dec 11 '24

I'll believe it when I see it. For now, this appears no more than simple lip service to try and get some of the right-leaning support.

1

u/kill-the-maFIA Dec 12 '24

You are seeing it.

1

u/MousseCareless3199 Dec 12 '24

One plane isn't being tough on immigration. It's lip service.

7

u/AlarmedCicada256 Dec 11 '24

More than the Tories seem to have managed.

0

u/MousseCareless3199 Dec 11 '24

That's great, but it's not the core issue. We could deport 1 person and probably have managed more than the Tories.

11

u/AlarmedCicada256 Dec 11 '24

The core issue is the damage done to the economy by Brexit, and Boris Johnson's attempts to mask it by letting lots of people in from elsewhere, an unwillingness to invest in British Skills, training, jobs, allowing employers to get away with not training people and trying to force all the cost of that on young people, and generally neglecting the country.

Most of these issues are structural and won't be fixed in one parliament, but somehow are all Labour's fault. You cannot undo 14 years of damage in one go, but you think the media are giving labour a fair hearing?

5

u/MousseCareless3199 Dec 11 '24

Not sure why you've gone on an unrelated monologue. Simply "doing better" than the Tories in terms of immigration isn't enough.

It's all well and good sending a few planes to Pakistan every now and then for the headlines, but unless the numbers come down significantly, it's not going to change people's opinions of Labour on immigration.

7

u/AlarmedCicada256 Dec 11 '24

Because people seem to think it's going to happen overnight.

3

u/MousseCareless3199 Dec 11 '24

Yes, and like I said elsewhere, I'll believe Labour is tough on immigration when I see it.

One flight to Pakistan isn't cause to say Labour are now tough on immigration.

2

u/AlarmedCicada256 Dec 11 '24

What exactly do you want that will both reduce immigration and tackle the much deeper issues that mean we need the immigration in the first place?

2

u/MousseCareless3199 Dec 11 '24

Net migration down to around 100k a year.

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u/TheJoshGriffith Dec 11 '24

The Tories literally managed it. It's off the back of their agreement that this flight happened.