For the latest interview in Voices from Parliament – our series of cross-party conversations on the government’s latest immigration reforms – we speak with Hannah Spencer, MP for Gorton and Denton.
A member of the Green Party and a newly elected MP, Hannah shares her concerns about the government’s plans to end refugee family reunion as we know it and reflects on what these changes could mean for families across the UK.
Read an excerpt from our conversation below or watch the full video interview here.
What is your response to the government's plans to end the right to family reunion for refugees as we know it?
I'm really alarmed by it. It's just a continuation of a really cruel and callous, hostile environment that successive governments have been involved in. When I think about the constituency that I represent that is really diverse and really broad, and where a lot of people have really very valid criticisms of the immigration system, I myself am quite angry about aspects of it. One thing that is really clear is that people really care about human beings and the idea that anybody would be stopped from seeing their kids or children from seeing their parents for any length of time is just really heartbreaking.
The government has suspended refugee family reunion, a vital safe route, while claiming they are committed to safe and legal routes. How do you make sense of that?
I can't make sense of it, and at the minute, nobody seems to be able to make sense of it. It just seems like a really ill-thought-out sound bite. I think that the government thought that they could get away with it but actually, they just underestimated the humanity and intelligence of people who are now questioning, how on earth is this going to work?
Why do you think family reunion is so important to refugees?
Because I think most of us, can recognise all the very many reasons why someone may come here and have done that for centuries and broadly, we're a very welcoming place for people who come here for whatever reason, who are fleeing persecution or war or whatever it is the effects of the climate crisis, like people come here and people really understand that. And I think for the government to think that they can do something without being challenged or without being scrutinized or held to account, again, they've just really underestimated the will and humanity of people here.
For people that are really concerned about these changes, what would you encourage them to do to resist some of these changes?
For anybody who is worried, I would suggest engaging as best you can with your MP or the political system. Like, really make your voice heard. Because, as we've shown to this Labour government, the very nature of us winning this by-election has pushed and put pressure on the Labour government to be kinder and more caring. And I think one thing that has meant a lot to me and has really helped me understand this has been spending time with refugees and people who've come here. Because I think, when I started to meet people who were kind enough to share some of their experiences with me, it really hit home, like, why people come here, and the cruelty of people being separated from their children. I met an Iranian woman at a weekly refugee tea that we have. Everyone has tea together, and you just go and eat and chat. And we got to know each other. And she was just like me, but from a different part of the world. We were just born in different places, but she didn't see her kids for two or three years. She had twin boys. Just that heartbreak, I think of her knowing that she needed to get them to a safe place, but wasn't able to. I'm just really worried now that that is just going to affect so many more people, and I think it's unnecessary and cruel.
We know that these changes are likely to affect thousands of people all over the country. How do you see this impacting some of your own constituents?
I know of someone that's come here who is struggling for her son to come over, and that story is really sad, and nobody would, I think you'd struggle to find anyone that would support, that sort of splitting up. And it's not just in my constituency; it's up and down the country, because people come here and find a home, and then they're struggling to be able to actually put roots down. It's going to affect every single community when we find that the people that live amongst us and that are part of our lives and part of our society are now under threat.
That torment and that cruelty that people have experienced as a reason why they come here is just worsened when they're not able to be with their loved ones. And I know that the vast majority of people, certainly people in the constituency that elected me, really care about each other, and they wouldn't want that to happen to people.
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