Yvette Cooper isn’t wrong when she speaks of the “chaos that has blighted the immigration system for too long” – but it’s still profoundly dispiriting to hear her plans. She promises a “large surge” in return flights for refused asylum seekers, and others with no right to be here; 100 new intelligence officers and two new removal centres in Hampshire and Oxfordshire. Given that Harmondsworth currently has the worst conditions the prisons inspectorate has ever seen, it seems like poor prioritising, at best, to pledge more removal centres before sorting out the ones we have.
What’s the home secretary’s long game here? Does she want to go down as a more competent, slightly fairer version of Theresa May – all the tough talk with extra deliverability? Or is the real Yvette Cooper the one seen giving parliamentary speeches, including the one of which she is most proud, placing humanity and empathy towards refugees at the centre of the British identity?
