In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright is joined by former Political Editor of the Sunday Mirror, Nigel Nelson, co-founder of Momentum and former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn, James Schneider, and Professor of European Politics, and Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration at the University of Ireland Maynooth, John O’Brennan.
Yesterday, the Minister of State for Immigration Robert Jenrick resigned over the government’s Rwanda Plan. Sunak is facing a revolt from the right and centre of his party over this issue, and the panel unpack how the Tories got into this mess. They turn to the recent changes to visa rules where the minimum salary threshold for a work visa is to be raised to £38,700, from the current £26,200, with some exemptions in health and social care.
The panel dissect the very foundations of the economic necessity of foreign migrants, and the rhetoric of the government. One panellist argues that ‘stopping the boats’ has been largely manufactured as a political media distraction from the cost-of-living crisis, which has led to this sickly Rwanda farce.
They turn to the Covid-inquiry, Boris Johnson’s performance, the nature of the reporting on it, and whether the purpose of learning about what went wrong for a future pandemic is being achieved. Chris then raises the bizarre and somewhat enraging issue for the Labour Party of Starmer’s praising of Thatcher in his recent Telegraph article. Corbyn’s former advisor James Schneider has a lot to say about that!
In this episode we discuss:
- The Rwanda Plan
- The UK Government’s new visa rules
- The Covid Inquiry
- Starmer’s Thatcher comment.
Tags mentioned:
Immigration