Green-led Lewisham council plans to end cooperation with Home Office on immigration raids
9 reported
A Green-led London council is planning to ban its officials from working with the Home Office on immigration raids, after uncovering evidence suggesting government officials wanted to use environmental health data to target restaurant workers. Councillors on the Lewisham borough council are due to vote next week on a motion that would review its systems with a view to ending any cooperation with the government’s attempts to deport people without the right to remain in the UK. The vote comes after council officials uncovered an email from the Home Office’s immigration enforcement team asking for help with conducting “joint operational visits”. Ministers have boasted about conducting more immigration raids than the previous Conservative government, but Green-led councils are now promising to defy the Home Office with a “green crescent” of sanctuary boroughs across the capital. Labour has increased immigration raids to historic numbers since entering government two years ago, with a 77% increase in raids on businesses and an 83% rise in arrests since the 2024 election. The Greens won sweeping victories in the local elections in May, in part by winning over progressive voters in urban areas who had been angered by Labour’s migration policies. Councillors will vote on the move at a meeting next Wednesday, with the motion expected to pass given the Greens have 40 of the council’s 54 seats.
What’s reported
Lewisham council is planning to ban cooperation with the Home Office on immigration raids.
The vote follows an email from the Home Office’s immigration enforcement team requesting “joint operational visits.”
The Home Office asked the council’s food standards team for assistance, according to a 2023 email seen by the Guardian.
Labour has increased immigration raids by 77% and arrests by 83% since the 2024 election.
The Greens now run councils in Southwark, Haringey, Hackney, Lewisham, and Waltham Forest.
Lewisham became a “sanctuary borough” in May 2021 under a Labour administration.
The Green party in Lewisham wants to review all spending and data-collection systems to stop cooperation with the Home Office on raids.
The review may include contracts with organisations like St Mungo’s, which apologised in 2019 for sharing information about migrant rough sleepers with the Home Office.
Councillors will vote on the motion next Wednesday; the Greens hold 40 of the council’s 54 seats.
Key figures
Zack Polanski, Green party leader
Peter Walsh, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory
Home Office spokesperson (not named)
Sources: The Guardian
