It's wrong': the Labour MP speaking out against the party's asylum policy

"Before Monday morning, Folkestone and Hythe's backbench Labour MP Tony Vaughan was best known for his slick, pro-government Instagram reels. In one, he dives into the brown sea off the Kent coast, ignoring a no swimming sign, to show constituents that Labour has made progress tackling water pollution; a few minutes later, he emerges in his trunks, as the 007 theme tune plays."

"But this week, his social media output shifted from party loyalist to something more combative. On the morning the government announced its much-trailed changes to the asylum system, Vaughan began articulating his fierce opposition to them on every available platform. The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong. We absolutely need immigration controls. And where those controls decide to grant asylum, we should welcome and integrate, not create perpetual limbo and alienation, he wrote on X."

"His interventions were particularly unwelcome to the government because they came from a uniquely well-informed source: an MP representing a constituency at the frontline of the immigration debate, who, prior to his election in 2024, worked as an immigration barrister at the same chambers where Keir Starmer once practised. Vaughan has represented refugees and asylum seekers, and victims of human trafficking at the supreme court, and was appointed as a KC earlier this year."

Tony Vaughan transitioned from producing pro-government Instagram reels to vocally opposing proposed asylum reforms. Vaughan argued that deporting recognised refugees is wrong while supporting measured immigration controls and advocating welcoming integration rather than perpetual limbo. He warned that the rhetoric around the reforms fuels divisiveness, racism and abuse in communities. Vaughan's interventions attracted attention because he represents a frontline constituency and previously practised as an immigration barrister at the same chambers as Keir Starmer. Vaughan has represented refugees, asylum seekers and trafficking victims at the supreme court and was appointed KC earlier in the year.

Read at www.theguardian.com