Nick Clegg was hit by a revolt today over his bid to toughen his party’s stance on immigration.
Senior Liberal Democrat members warned the Deputy Prime Minister that their party does not believe in “top-down policymaking by diktat”.
They hit out at his proposals to ditch the Lib-Dem policy of an amnesty for illegal immigrants and to make some newcomers to Britain pay a bond which they would only get back when they left.
In a keynote speech last Friday, Mr Clegg stressed he was “no longer convinced” in the Lib-Dem policy for illegal immigrants who have been in Britain for 10 years and not committed crimes to be allowed to “earn” British citizenship.
He now believes such an amnesty risked undermining public confidence in the immigration system and has asked a party review, headed by former minister Andrew Stunell, to examine it.
He also backed a Home Office pilot of a system of bonds to tackle visa overstayers from “high risk countries”.
But four members of the party’s federal policy committee, Gareth Epps, Louise Bloom, Prateek Buch and Lucy Care, as well as Suzanne Fletcher and Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera, who are both members of the party’s working group on immigration, and Will Dyer from Liberal Youth, have written a letter of protest. They stressed the amnesty plan “remains Liberal Democrat policy until our Conference decides otherwise”.
