The University of Portsmouth (UoP) branch of the UCU (University and College Union) has voted overwhelmingly for a motion condemning ‘the recent bigoted and divisive rhetoric of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other Labour politicians about immigration’ and calling on the UoP leadership to ‘lobby the government to reverse its planned restrictions on international students.’
Keir Starmer’s use of the phrase ‘an island of strangers’ invokes the poisonous racism and xenophobia of Enoch Powell and his recent far-right successors, argues the motion. Such rhetoric coincides with the imminent publication of a white paper on immigration which will compel international students to leave the UK if they cannot obtain a graduate-level job.
The motion was in part a response to a statement made by UCU General Secretary Jo Grady in late February. ‘This threat to further restrict international students’ ability to live and work in the UK when higher education is already on its knees, is bad for the sector, bad for the economy, and bad for our standing in the world’, she wrote. ‘Higher education is still one of Britain’s last world-leading sectors and after years of Tory decline, Labour should be doing all it can to protect the sector, not engage in these acts of sabotage.’
The motion also pointed to the potential damage Labour’s new policy could do to the local economy, given that UoP currently brings more than half a billion pounds to the Solent region annually. UCU branch members stand with international students and staff members, and call on the UoP leadership to join them in condemning the government’s inflammatory rhetoric and planned legislation.
Image ‘Pickets at the rear entrance to the University of East Anglia today‘ by Roger Blackwell reused under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence.
