Left-wing luvvies are endangering Britain

In June 2021, Ernesto Elliott – a convicted criminal with a history of knife crime – brutally murdered another man in a frenzied eight-minute attack in broad daylight. Horrified onlookers were left traumatised witnessing the murder, which involved a dispute over stolen goods. Last month, Elliott was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 26 years, for this horrific act.

The truth is that Elliott should never have been in the UK when he committed the murder. As a citizen of a foreign country – Jamaica – who had already been convicted of serious crimes, he should have been removed back to his country, as required by long-standing legislation. As immigration minister in December 2020, that is exactly what I tried to do. Living in the UK is not an automatic entitlement and the Government should obviously act to protect its own citizens from dangerous criminals who are not British.

But when the then home secretary and I tried to remove Elliott and dozens of other criminal offenders – including murderers and rapists – Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs objected, together with various celebrities. Actress Thandiwe Newton, model Naomi Campbell and TV historian David Olusoga all said that these criminals should stay here.

Opposition MPs wrote letters, spuriously citing Windrush – even though every person had been checked to ensure no Windrush eligibility, and foreign national offenders have nothing to do with the Windrush issue anyway.

In light of this campaign by the Left and virtue-signalling celebrities, Elliott managed to lodge a successful legal challenge, exploiting generous judicial interpretation of human rights and similar legislation, to prevent his removal from the United Kingdom. Only a handful of the serious criminals ended up being deported on the planned flight that month. So Elliott was free – and then, just a few months later, committed a murder in front of horrified bystanders who could easily have become victims as well. The Labour MPs and celebrities who defended the right of foreign criminals to stay clearly had no thought for the danger our fellow citizens would face, nor for the victims of their original offences.

I’ve heard from victims who are horrified that perpetrators of sexual offences, including rape and sickeningly violent assaults, have been allowed to stay in this country despite not having citizenship. But confronted with Elliott’s deportation flight, the “campaigners” only wanted to try to score some cheap political points, claiming that removing foreign national criminals is somehow racist. In fact, the vast majority of deportations of foreign offenders are back to European countries, so race has nothing to do with it.

Elliott’s flight wasn’t even the first time in 2020 that Left-wing opposition arose to the removal of foreign criminals. The same thing happened just months before, when Labour MPs including Sir Keir Starmer, signed a letter objecting to a previous flight. All of these people should now reflect on the terrible impact of their political posturing.

There also needs to be some consideration for the way in which well-intentioned law is very expansively interpreted by the courts – especially law concerning human rights, asylum and modern slavery. This provided a basis for Elliott and other dangerous criminals to persuade judges to prevent their removal.

The Nationality and Borders Act, which became law last year, was partly prompted by such cases and is designed to close some of these loopholes. It was opposed by Labour and Lib Dem MPs in Parliament. More changes may be needed through further legislation currently being considered. It is almost inevitable that these will be opposed by Left-wing politicians and their celebrity friends.

But the first duty of government is to protect the public and properly police our borders. This Government understands that fundamental role, and will always prioritise public safety over foreign criminals. It’s a shame that Labour can’t say the same. I hope they never get the chance to impose their warped priorities on our country. 

Rt Hon Chris Philp MP is minister for crime and policing