Is competent government too much to ask?
If you think the UK Government deserves our unquestioning support, that outrage at lockdown hypocrisy is the invention of a biased left-wing media or an attempt by insufficiently patriotic remainers to thwart Brexit (how an event in the past can be thwarted, I’m not sure), or that international comparisons (of total deaths, excess deaths, deaths per million) that cast the UK’s pandemic response in a poor light are merely statistical sleights of hand that fail to acknowledge the country’s plucky exceptionalism – if you think any or all of these things, then please, please watch this two-minute video of yesterday’s Commons Liaison Committee meeting, in which the actual Prime Minister makes clear his total ignorance of a significant part of the UK’s immigration policy. A policy that, according to the Children’s Society, directly affects many tens of thousands of people – key workers, taxpayers, hard-working families and children. A policy that currently leaves many of those people threatened with destitution.
Your views on immigration policy in general, and this policy in particular, aren’t what is important here. This is not an issue of ideology, but one of competence. Let it sink in that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (a former Foreign Secretary and former Mayor of London) was until yesterday apparently unaware of the concept of ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) and its application, as a matter of course, to those with temporary leave to remain in the UK.
NRPF has been on the statute book since 1999. It was reaffirmed (according to a Home Office blog published on 5th May) most recently in 2014. It was the subject of a High Court ruling (that it was unlawful) on 7th May. The current Mayor of London wrote to the Prime Minister about it specifically on 29th March. According to Hansard, it has been mentioned in Commons debates more than 60 times so far this year, including in debates on Covid 19, Homelessness, Domestic Abuse and the EU Withdrawal Immigration Bill currently going through Parliament. And yet the Prime Minister’s response to a straightforward, detailed question on the subject is disbelief and a bewildered ‘Ah!’ He trotted out the stock government response to most cases of hardship – why couldn’t they apply for Universal Credit? – blithely unaware that Universal Credit is very specifically one of the long list of benefits they are deliberately prevented from receiving.
Like all of us, I have a strong vested interest in this government mustering a competent response to this crisis. I’ve already lost one relative to the virus, and I’d rather not lose any more, so I’d be delighted if the Prime Minister can start delivering the kind of leadership some of those who voted for him say he can provide. I don’t want government by metaphor. I don’t want common sense and optimism bias. I don’t want arbitrary targets and PR-led distractions. I don’t want to be told our systems are ‘world-beating’ and everything is going swimmingly. I’m not expecting perfection; I know it’s an unprecedented situation. I want competence, attention to detail, evidence-based interventions and clear, honest communication. And I’d like a government that can admit mistakes, takes responsibility for the actions carried out in its name, doesn’t undermine its own credibility, and accepts its accountability both to Parliament and the people. I really hope that’s not too much to ask.
