Mark Harper, the Immigration minister notorious for the racist “In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest” vans who left the Government in February, is back in office. After just six months on the back benches, he returns to the Coalition as Minister of State at the DWP.
He resigned from the government earlier this year after it emerged that a cleaner he had employed since 2007 did not have permission to work in the UK. The minister, responsible for a draconian anti-immigration measure which would increase sanctions on employers who did not check the immigration papers of their employees, re-checked the immigration status of Isabella Acevedo, who had an unblemished work record, and then shopped her to immigration enforcement officials. Continue reading
It’s always satisfying when a government minister is forced to resign on grounds of hypocrisy. This applies particularly to Immigration Minister Mark Harper, the man who brought us last summer’s “Go home or face arrest” vans in multicultural areas of London. He was forced to quit after admitting employing a cleaner without checking her documents as demanded by the law. She on the other hand , has been handed over to the Home office enforcement teams, presumably to be removed as soon as possible to spare the government any more embarrassment. Cleaners, after all, do wash dirty linen, and might do it in public. 