Andrew Pope's Essay on "Immigration"

 

Andrew Pope on BBC South Today

Our co-founder and member of the Independent Network Andrew Pope has published an essay on "immigration".

It is on this page here.

Agree? Disagree? Get in touch.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Do You Believe the French Authorities Are Stopping the Boats? We Have The Numbers... And They Don't Add Up

 

Net Migrants Arrived Minus Prevented in 2024
Source: French Authorities and Home Office and Border Force

 

In an exclusive analysis, Southampton Independents can reveal that there have only been just eight weeks since 5th May 2024 where the number of illegal migrants arriving in the UK on small boats has been less than the number prevented from arriving by the French authorities.

This is only eight weeks out of twenty-six, from 5th May 2024 to 27th October 2024.

In every other week, eighteen weeks in total, the number of migrants arriving has exceeded the number of migrants prevented.

The number of migrants arriving is reported by the Home Office and Border Force.

The number of migrants prevented is reported using "operational estimates" provided to the UK Government by French authorities. No prevention figures were available prior to 5th May 2024.

So while the French authorities might be stopping some of the boats, using substantial amounts of UK Government money to do so, other boats are getting through, and as we have reported, the total that have arrived in 2024 now exceeds 30,000.

Prime Minister Starmer has just announced at the Interpol conference in Glasgow that he would be doubling the money given to France to £150 million. So the figures might suggest that it is working, to an extent. There is no doubt that some of the boats are intercepted.

But when the net number of boats is calculated using the same figures, more questions arise.

 

Net Boats Arrived Minus Prevented in 2024
Source: French Authorities and Home Office and Border Force

 

As you can see in the graph above, it appears that there are only three weeks out of twenty-six that more boats arrive than are prevented.

Which then begs the question, how did we get to over 30,000 migrants arriving if these figures are accurate?

And then we might start to question the figures published by the French authorities, the Home Office and Border Force.

Which then leads to questions of trust, already at low levels on this issue.

Perhaps Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron might be discussing the accuracy of the figures during their meeting in Paris following the Armistice Day commemorations today?

Or perhaps they won't... 

And this massive failure of successive governments will continue to undermine our country's, and our City's, security and community cohesion.

 

EXCLUSIVE: When Will Illegal Migration Be Stopped? Starmer Record Now Worse Than Sunak - Tops 30,000 in 2024 - Full Breakdown Per Day

 

Illegal Migration Under Tories and Labour in 2024

 

An exclusive analysis by Southampton Independents has shown that Keir Starmer's Labour Government is even worse at preventing illegal migration than "Southampton boy" Rishi Sunak's Tory Government's disastrous failure to "stop the boats".

The graph below shows the number of illegal migrants arriving on small boats per day during 2024, up to 27th October. 

 

Southampton Independents Graph of Illegal Migrants to UK
Source: Home Office and Border Force

 

When totalled for the periods under Tory and Labour Governments, as shown in the graph below, it is clear that it has got even worse under Labour.

 

Illegal Migration Under Tories and Labour in 2024

(N.B. The resemblance of the graph to the French tricolore is entirely coincidental.)

Far from "smashing the gangs" that Starmer repeatedly promised before July's General Election, the official Government figures that we have analysed show that the number of illegal migrants that have arrived during the Labour Government has now topped 17,000 in just four months, from 5th July to 27th October 2024.

The total number of 17,087 during Starmer's Labour Government far exceeds the 13,574 recorded under Tory Sunak in the six months from 1st January to 4th July 2024. Sunak's record was bad enough and people did not vote Conservative in the General Election because of it. Their votes went elsewhere.

Having plummeted in his approval ratings to be the most unpopular Prime Minister in record time, and with Labour losing the recent Shirley by-election and more by-elections across England and Scotland, Starmer and his hapless Home Secretary Yvette Cooper now appear to be in panic mode.

Starmer has met with "far right" Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, seemingly to get advice on how to deal with illegal migration, which Labour has pathetically rebranded "irregular" migration.

Now the Prime Minister is due to make some new announcements and form new units, in what seems to be a pattern of behaviour of creating units, adding bureaucracy, writing strategies and making public relations announcements that make no difference, yet at the same time declaring "no more gimmicks".

Co-founder of Southampton Independents Andrew Pope, who stood in the recent Shirley by-election as an Independent candidate, says: 

 

Andrew Pope

"When I stood in the recent Shirley Council by-election, I asked residents what was concerning them. Some residents told me on their doorsteps that they want to know when the boats will be stopped and when our borders will be brought under control.

Residents are concerned about the impact of illegal migration and the out-of-control legal migration on Southampton and our housing, our jobs, our education system, on social care and NHS, and on social integration and cohesion.

They were already concerned before the EU Referendum, when our borders were supposedly to be brought under control - another failure of the Tories.

But now, the impact of migration is bigger... much bigger. It's too much and it's too fast.

I pointed out to those residents that controlled migration can have a positive impact on all of those things, if Government gets a grip and a measure of balance, and communities are given time to adjust. But clearly, that isn't the case.

The Labour-run Council is no help on this issue either. 

My investigation and report has shown that just weeks after the General Election, the Labour councillors that run the Council abandoned its 2014 policy of Southampton council housing for Southampton people.

Now they are allowing people who live outside Southampton to get on the waiting list. Officers said they don't even have any record of having rejected any applications from people who did not live in the City.

I fought for the "local connection" policy of a minimum 3 year residency  when I was still in the Labour Administration back then. I put it in the Labour Council Manifesto.

Apparently the policy was brought in in 2014 - Council officers confirmed this with copies of the policy - but it has been abandoned at some point during the last ten years. Exactly when is not clear.

I've written to the Housing Cabinet Member Councillor Andy Frampton about the Council's response to my Freedom of Information request, but have received no answer in a fortnight. You would think he would be able to explain.

The Leader of the "opposition" Tories Councillor Peter Baillie has also not replied when I asked him whether he supports the Labour abandonment of the policy.

Local people agreed with me in my conversations with them that on illegal and legal migration, in Government and at the Council, it's another case of Labour or Tory, same old story.

That's why Labour is losing elections across the country and why the Tories have had to elect yet another new Leader after losing the General Election.

Trust and confidence in Government will continue to go down unless these Westminster parties start to control our borders and restore some sense of harmony and balance to society, and to halt the continuing immigration chaos and panic. 

Migration can be a positive force but at the moment it is totally out of control."

If you would like to know what support asylum seekers get, you can see it here on the Government gov.uk website. They receive free money, free healthcare, free education and free housing.

Nearly Three Months Later, Southern Daily Echo Corrects Reporting of Southampton Census - But Only After We Intervened

 

Daily Echo 1st December 2022

"11.6 per cent (of Southampton's population) is white" reported the Daily Echo in December 2022

The Southern Daily Echo has apologised for its coverage of the Census for Southampton by the Office for National Statistics. 

In a printed article on 1st December 2022, the Southern Daily Echo had previously reported that "11.6 per cent is white" of Southampton's population. Clearly this is false reporting of the facts. Anybody who lives in Southampton would say this is incorrect.

 

Daily Echo, p.5 1st Dec 2022

The false information appeared under the headline "Census reveals city of diversity" and was front page news under the headline "A REAL MIX - CENSUS DATA REVEALS HOW CITY HAS CHANGED - READ THE FULL REPORT ON PAGE FIVE" with a photo of Southampton's Bargate. 

 

"11.6 per cent is white" said the Echo

 

The article "full report" was in fact only half a page. It also appeared on the Echo website, which we understand has been corrected.

A second article written by another Echo reporter repeated the same misinformation.

Neither article provided any context or explanation for the false claim.

Southampton Independents campaigner and NCTJ-trained journalist Andrew Pope contacted the Editor of the Daily Echo, Ben Fishwick, with a set of concerns about the article's accuracy and how it could be interpreted. 

 

Former Councillor Andrew Pope
and our Co-Founder

Eventually, on 23rd February 2023, almost three months later, the Echo printed the correction, saying that: 

"We apologise for the error and are happy to correct the record."

The correction appeared on page 16, in the corner next to an article with headline "Pub set to expand" and above adverts that took up half of the page.

 

Daily Echo, 23rd Feb 2023, p. 16

 

 

The Correction

In actual fact, the ONS website clearly states in bold that:

"In 2021, 10.6% of usual residents in Southampton identified their ethnic group within the "Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh" category"

Coincidence? You decide.

And the ONS site also clearly states that in 2011, that the ethnic group of usual residents was 85.9% white. By 2021, this had decreased to 80.7%.

We will leave you to draw your own conclusions as to how these "errors" were made, but you can see in the photo that the Echo "Correction" states that "the correct figure (of non-white Sotonians) is one in five"  - meaning the figure for white Sotonians is four in five - close to the 80.7% white figure above from the ONS. 

However, the Echo blames it on third party analysis, saying that:

"This was due to the stories being based in part on third party analysis of Office for National Statistics data".

Yet the ONS itself clearly states the above facts at the above link. We do not have any explanation as to how the ONS analysis could have been missed. We found it immediately using a Google search.

You can decide for yourself why it took so long to correct, and why the mistakes were made in the first place. The Editor of the Echo has been offered the right of reply.

We stand up for Southampton and its residents. That was why we were formed.

On Mass Immigration and Our Economy, It's More Labour And Tory - And The Same Old Story

 

We Left The EU Didn't We?

 

According to the Government and Members of Parliament, the UK has "left" the EU. Have we noticed? What impact has it had on mass immigration? The Conservatives' version of "Brexit" does not seem to match what people voted for in 2016.

Before the 2016 EU Referendum, people were promised that the UK would "take back control" of our borders.

Yet statistics published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the:

 "highest net migration since the Second World War and is far higher than pre-Brexit levels."

And it is the same old story with our economy as well as mass immigration, with Labour or Conservative governments "in control" (except they haven't been in control as it's been repeated failure and chaos):

• the cost of living has spiralled out of control, with people worried about heating their homes and paying for basics including food
  
• our economy has tanked after 12 years of mismanagement and chaos in Government by the Tories, who - let's not forget - took over from Labour's Gordon Brown who also tanked the economy
• massive strikes across the board, crippling our economy and with continued below-inflation pay increases
• mismanagement of our NHS and economy during the Pandemic
  
• threats of unemployment and a two-year long recession by the Bank of England

It doesn't seem to matter who is in Government, it is the people of Southampton who suffer.

Here is what the Southampton Independents candidate for Southampton Test at the 2017 General Election, Andrew Pope said at the time. 

 

Former Councillor Andrew Pope

 

Andrew was not elected, but he listened to what the people of Southampton said, and represented their views.

So what about the current MPs for Southampton? There are three.

1. Southampton Test has a Labour MP, Alan Whitehead. He voted against leaving the European Union. Has he acted to limit mass immigration?
   
2. Southampton Itchen has a Conservative MP, Royston Smith. What has he done to bring mass immigration under control?
3. Romsey and Southampton North has a Conservative MP, Caroline Noakes. What has she done to bring mass immigration under control, as a Government Minister?

Have these Labour and Tory MPs represented you?

They have not respected the vote at the 2016 EU Referendum.

These MPs and their Westminster parties have done very little to bring mass immigration under control. If they have done anything, it has not worked.

It's more Labour or Tory and the same old story.

Who do they represent? Because it does not seem to be the people of Southampton, or the views of the people of Southampton at Westminster.

These MPs put themselves and their parties first.

 

Southampton Schools: The Uncomfortable Truth

Will Brexit fix schools?

We have written about the failures of the Tory Government to provide sufficient school funding, class sizes increasing and pressures being put on school budgets.

We have written about the failures of the Labour Council to provide sufficient school funding, and their removal of funding from schools that they had previously promised.

Sadly like many things, it's yet another case of Labour or Tory, same old story.

Southampton Independents try to be balanced, including in our criticism. We owe it to Southampton's parents and pupils to get to the bottom of the reasons for problems in our schools.

That's because Southampton's pupils deserve the best education possible.

Below is a graph of the number of Year R (Reception) places in Southampton from 2007 to 2016. The source of the data is Southampton City Council.

It shows that the number of places has increased by 46% during a decade.

How can school funding ever keep pace with this massive increase?

The Tories claim that they are putting in more money than ever. But it still isn't enough, because the number of pupils has increased so much.

Is it due to mass immigration?

Is it due to an increase in birth rates in our country?

Is it solely due to Eastern European immigration since 2004?

Labour failed to predict the numbers of migrants, failed to stem mass immigration, and then the Tories and Lib Dems also failed to deal with it. It's been going on for 13 years.

You can see in the graph that the number of "White British" pupils has increased, as well as those who are of "White Other" ethnicity.

If these figures from the Council are correct, it appears that the birth rate has increased overall and not just for Eastern European migrants. But the data could be inaccurate.

If it is accurate, you can see that the number of "White Other" pupils has increased by a massive 318%, whereas the number of "White British" pupils has increased by one-tenth of that, 27%. However, because the "White British" pupils are already a much larger group, there has still been a substantial increase of 432 pupils, whereas the increase of "White Other" has been fewer pupils, 296.

In any case, will Brexit mean that all of these children will leave the UK? It is unlikely. And people who are committed to our country should be able to stay.

A solution needs to be found. It is imperative that the constant and massive flow of new people into our country, so-called net migration, needs to be controlled and reduced. Our schools can't cope.

Labour's Wilted Rose

Andrew Pope, our candidate to be the next MP for Southampton Test, says:

"Immigration needs to be controlled if Southampton is going to get a grip on class sizes and the funding crisis. It isn't an opinion. It is a simple fact. 

All of this time, Alan Whitehead has been the Labour MP for Southampton Test. What has he done about it? Very little and if he has done anything, the schools are still struggling.

People tell us that it is time for Alan Whitehead to go. He has had plenty of opportunities to fix Southampton's schools. But he has flunked the examination over 20 years. Alan Whitehead even voted against Brexit. How is that going to fix our schools? 

The Tory candidate Paul Holmes says he was Cabinet Member for schools, back at the beginning of this decade. Did he fix the crisis? No. Where has he been since then? In London.

Please vote for me to replace Alan Whitehead and be your Southampton Independents MP. I will get to the bottom of the schools problems and fight effectively to sort them out."

We ask you to please Vote Andrew Pope Southampton Independents. He will listen to you. He will work for you. He will stand up for you on schools.

Theresa May Has Been Exposed

Reacting to the news that Theresa May has changed the Conservatives' plans for social care, within days of releasing them in their General Election Manifesto, Andrew Pope, our Candidate to be the next MP for Southampton Test, says:

"If you saw how badly Theresa May deals with reasonable questions from journalists on Monday, you can see how weak she is.

You can also see how incompetent she is, by changing a policy that had only just been released.

On their doorsteps and in Southampton's streets, we have asked many Southampton residents whether they can name a single thing Theresa May has achieved in seven years of Government.

Nobody could name a single thing.

That's because she hasn't achieved anything to benefit our Country.

One thing she has done is cut the Police, including the Armed Police that our Country needs to deal with terrorists.

And she has failed to deal with the mass immigration that Labour started.

And she has failed to deal with our country's deficit and the growing levels of Government debt.

Theresa May is not strong and stable.

She cannot handle being held to account. That is why her visit to Southampton was so quick and so carefully managed by the Conservative Party.

But Labour's Jeremy Corbyn is also too weak and incompetent to hold her to account.

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn are BOTH weak and wobbly. What a Hobson's Choice!

People know whether it's Labour or Tory, they get the same old story.

They should vote for the person who would best represent them at Westminster.

That is why Southampton Test needs an Independent voice at Westminster, and why I ask them to please vote for me, their Southampton Independents Candidate, at the 8th June General Election."

Theresa May Cannot Be Trusted on Immigration or The Deficit

The Southampton Independents Parliamentary Candidate for MP in Southampton Test, Andrew Pope, says:

"Southampton Independents have already made clear what Southampton people think about Theresa May's repeated failure, over 7 years, to deal with the mass immigration that the last Labour Government started, and the Tory-LibDem Coalition and Tory governments failed to stop.

When we ask residents what Theresa May has achieved in Government over seven years, they normally cannot name a single thing. Sometimes they say that she has delivered Brexit.

Let us not forget, Theresa May campaigned for Remain.

Perhaps it is unsurprising then that it took NINE months for Brexit to be triggered after she and other MPs allowed the Referendum legislation to be deeply flawed.

Southampton has benefited from immigration for centuries.

But Southampton people do not like the SCALE of the immigration, and the SPEED of the immigration that has been unleashed by successive failing governments. And they do not like the IMPACTS that mass immigration has had on Southampton's communities and our public services.

So Theresa May cannot be trusted on immigration.

She cannot be trusted on removing our national deficit either.

Labour delivered the financial crisis in 2008.

The Tories, with May in the Cabinet for seven years, used the financial crisis and the bailout of the banks as an excuse to cut public spending. They wanted to cut spending anyway. Labour's massive errors gave them the opportunity.

But the Tories have broken promises, time and time again, on removing the spending deficit. Both George Osborne and Phillip Hammond, both working with Theresa May, have pushed the target years back and now further back in the Tory Manifesto. And they have racked up more public debt because of this.

So the Tories under Theresa May cannot be trusted on immigration or the deficit."

Please VOTE Andrew Pope Southampton Independents to be your next MP.

Andrew listens to you. Andrew works for you. Andrew stands up for you against Labour AND the Tories.

Soton Indies Official Party Emblem

Nobody Trusts May on Immigration

With the news that the Tories intend to make their twice-broken promise again to get net migration down to the "tens of thousands"*, our Southampton Test Parliamentary Candidate Andrew Pope says:

Andrew Pope

"Nobody believes Theresa May on stopping mass immigration.

She failed to do it when Home Secretary in David Cameron's short-lived Government.

She failed to do it when Home Secretary in the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition Government.

And she will fail to do it as Prime Minister.

Her recent negotiation tactic of saying she can be a "bloody difficult woman" and trying to talk herself up, doesn't match with her record of failure.

Theresa May talks big, but achieves little.

You don't get to carry on as Home Secretary if you challenge the department. The Sir Humphreys will have you out if you do.

May hasn't challenged it at all and she has achieved very little.

May didn't show leadership as Home Secretary.

May showed how to protect herself in her job.

Whenever I ask members of the public what Theresa May has achieved, they cannot name a single thing!

This election is about Brexit. It's about achieving the Brexit that people voted for, not a botched version of Brexit that is becoming more likely every week with May's approach."

Southampton Independents campaigned for Brexit. 

Why? 

Because the people of Southampton asked us to.

People across Southampton said that we need to:

1. stop mass immigration
2. get control back of our borders
3. get our public services properly funded, and 
4. have British laws decided by the British people. 

NOW Southampton Independents WORKS TOGETHER with Southampton residents for a brighter and safer future for EVERYBODY.

Our great nation has always fought for a better future.

Brexit is about fighting for a positive future.

If you want the Brexit you voted for, please Vote for Andrew Pope Southampton Independents in the 8th June General Election for Southampton's voice in Westminster.

---

* From the BBC article:

"Net migration is the difference between the numbers of people moving to the UK for more than a year, and the numbers of people leaving the UK to live elsewhere for a year or more. The most recent figure was 273,000 and the last year that it was below 100,000 was 1997."

"EU migrants accounted for about 44% of the 596,000 people who came to the UK in the year to last September,

Of these, an estimated 294,000 came to work, 134,000 were long-term students, 74,000 came to join existing family members while 61,000 came for other reasons - including asylum seekers and those receiving medical treatment."

Brexit Must Halt Mass Immigration

During the EU Referendum campaign, we campaigned for Brexit.

We did this because we listened to the views of people across Hampshire.

They told us they wanted to vote for Brexit.

And they told us why:

"Immigration"

"too many immigrants"

"immigration is too much"

"we don't mind people coming here, but it is too many".

And they voted to Leave in their droves.

They turned up to vote, unlike in most local council elections where turnout is under half what it was in the EU Referendum.

They saw the effect of mass immigration on their daily lives.

For example, Southampton's schools have been impacted by an increased birth rate brought in largely due to mass immigration.

Southampton City Council had to expand the number of school places in 2012. I was at the Scrutiny meeting where councillors were asking questions about it. I particularly wanted to know whether there was any truth to the claim that immigration was putting pressure on the schools.

And the evidence that was provided by Council officers was clear.

Roll forward to 2016, and I asked Council officers for an update.

The pressure had not been alleviated and the percentage of school places taken by immigrants had gone up while school places taken by British nationals had gone down.

This should be no surprise - successive governments, whether Labour, Tory or Coalition, had failed to control mass immigration.

This is just one example - public services across local government and national government have been put under strain.

Brexit must halt mass immigration and the Government must control immigration to sustainable numbers.

That is what people voted for on 23rd June.

Now it is the Government's job to deliver.

Best wishes,
Councillor Andrew Pope