Green-led council plans to ban cooperation with Home Office on immigration raids

Green party leader Zack Polanski said he was ‘proud of brave, compassionate Green councils in London working to create a corridor of sanctuary’. Photograph: Rich McCarthy/PA View image in fullscreen Green party leader Zack Polanski said he was ‘proud of brave, compassionate Green councils in London working to create a corridor of sanctuary’. Photograph: Rich McCarthy/PA Green-led council plans to ban cooperation with Home Office on immigration raids Exclusive: Lewisham council’s move marks first step in Greens’ plan to create a corridor of sanctuary boroughs across London 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. Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said: “I’m proud of brave, compassionate Green councils in London working to create a corridor of sanctuary where nobody, no matter where they’re from or what papers they have, has to live in fear of being snatched away from the place they call home.” UK to continue sending potential trafficking victims to France despite court ruling Read more A Home Office spokesperson said the department had a “collaborative relationship” with Lewisham council, adding: “While all immigration enforcement visits are intelligence-led, we make no apology for joining forces with local authorities to enable information sharing and ultimately fighting criminals who fuel immigration crime.” Labour has increased immigration raids to historic numbers since entering government two years ago as the party comes under pressure from voters and Reform UK to take a harder line on the issue. The Home Office said in January there had been a 77% increase in the number of raids on businesses such as nail bars, car washes, barbers and takeaways since the 2024 election, with an 83% rise in arrests. This is despite mixed evidence for their success. Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at the Migration Observatory, said: “There is evidence that workplace enforcement makes employers think twice about hiring people without the right to work. “But with an unauthorised population likely in the high hundreds of thousands, raids can only ever touch a small share of the businesses involved, and reporting has tended to s