Labour's David Lammy accuses party of trying to 'out-kip Ukip' on immigration

 
Mayoral hopeful: David Lammy hit out at the leaflets (Picture: Nigel Howard)
Robin de Peyer27 January 2015
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

London Labour mayoral hopeful David Lammy has accused his party of trying to "out-kip Ukip" in a leaflet on immigration.

The Tottenham MP revealed he has been contacted by constituents who are angry at "inflammatory rhetoric" in party literature.

Mr Lammy, who is running for Mayor next year, tweeted a picture of an official Labour leaflet outlining the party's "tough new approach to immigration".

The flier said the party would stop immigrants claiming benefits until they have lived in the UK for at least two years and included a pledge to ensure foreign frontline staff can speak English.

But Mr Lammy said: "We're a pro-immigration party: let's not race to the bottom trying to out-kip UKIP."

Today he accused his party of presenting a "caricature" of foreign nurses who could not speak English, adding: "We should be strongly defending the importance of immigration and explaining how much this city in particular benefits from it."

His intervention came weeks after he revealed he will be seeking Labour's nomination in the race to replace Boris Johnson in City Hall.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Surprised this is a Labour flyer. We're a pro-immigration party: let's not race to the bottom trying to out-kip UKIP. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&amp;id=222025&amp;p=http://t.co/fR0pCFrtnl" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-108496-http://t.co/fR0pCFrtnl" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/fR0pCFrtnl</a>— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/DavidLammy/status/559686468529295360" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-108496-https://twitter.com/DavidLammy/status/559686468529295360" data-vars-event-id="c23">January 26, 2015</a>

Mr Lammy told the Standard: "We should be arguing that London’s diversity and cosmopolitanism are part of what makes it great.

"We are a pro-immigration party and we should stay that way, engaging in the debate on immigration but not on Ukip’s terms.

"What we should not be doing is taking part in a race to the bottom with the Tories and with Ukip to see who can come up with the toughest rhetoric on immigration I will be making the case for immigration strongly and proudly in the coming months."

The leaflet was also condemned by some commentators on social media.

Kavya Kaushik tweeted: "Labour sent us a leaflet saying they're "tough on immigration". Even tough they're aware we're a household with Indian citizens. Amazing."

A Labour spokesman defended the message of the leaflet and said Labour want to address voters' "real concerns" over mass immigration.

He added: "This includes plans for tougher border controls, preventing employers undercutting wages and banning agencies from only recruiting abroad - setting out new rules that are both tough and fair."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in