Immigration minister Mark Harper has resigned from the government after it emerged his cleaner did not have permission to work in the UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26101442

"I am extremely sorry to lose him from the Home Office but I am confident that he will be able to bring his considerable talents to government as a minister again in future."

So no £10,000 fine then. ( http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-immigration-bill-reduce-illegal-immigrants/16004 )

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84 :
Various people who I suspect are on first terms with Mark Harper are going on about how decent he is. He was behind the 'Go Home' vans.

https://twitter.com/IanDunt :
Spare me the praise for Harper's honour. Think instead about his cleaner, who will be deported without anyone mentioning her better nature.

https://twitter.com/MigrantVoiceUK :
if an immigration minister didn't know how will landlords, hospitals, surgeries, teachers... As per #ImmigrationBill £10k fine?

https://twitter.com/NoXenophobia :
ByeBye Mark Harper, tough isn't it - checking someone's immigration status? #stoptheimmigrationbill

https://twitter.com/ColinYeo1 :
The exchange of letters between Harper and Cameron suggests he has in fact 'broken the law' and is liable for a civil penalty. More soon...

https://twitter.com/thedharmablues :
Employing a person is no reason to resign. Ruining lives and destroying families for political gain, now that's a much better reason.

https://twitter.com/EiriOhtani :
I'd like to thank Mark Harper for demonstrating that requirement to check pple's immigration status is just unworkable. #stopImmigrationBill

Mark Harper’s blind repetition of Home Office mantra

If a mantra can be seen as representative of an organisation’s culture then the Home Office’s recent motto, “Go home”, is illustrative of what this ministerial department has come to stand for.

Yet this message, recently seen plastered on the side of vans which were driven through London areas with high concentrations of ethnic minorities, is not the only example of the department’s controversial guiding principles, and the Immigration Minister’s blind loyalty to them, which we have seen this month.

Mark Harper’s absolute obedience in toeing the party line when it comes to the Tory stance on immigration is evident in his defence of not only the now scrapped ‘racist vans’ but in his recent rejection of the Children’s Commissioner’s allegations that the government is failing to fulfill its human rights obligations towards children with regards to the amended family migration rules.

The dismissal – packed with the Home Office doublespeak we have come to associate with Harper - came two months after Children’s Commissioner Maggie Atkinson slammed the rules in a commendable letter to the minister which raised her grave concerns over the promotion of the welfare and well being of children in the UK with regards to the rules.

Minister of State for Immigration Mark Harper

Harper’s predictably disappointing response has angered opponents of the rules who are growing increasingly frustrated with the MP’s unwillingness to engage in any real debate on the issue and with his hollow promises to continue to monitor the impact of the rules and to consider the findings of the APPG on Migration in its recent Family Migration inquiry.

Particularly frustrating is Harper’s lack of serious consideration with regards to the Commissioner’s concerns that caseworkers are not giving due consideration to the best interests of the child in their decision-making - a claim which is supported by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s review of nearly 40 applications for entry clearance on the basis of marriage in which there was a child in the UK from April to October 2012, which found none of the refusals made any reference to best interests.

Furthermore, Harper denied the existence of any policy to refuse visit visas to spouses who have previously been refused a spouse visa on the grounds they are trying to circumnavigate the rules. Yet we continue to see such a trend.

A good mantra can serve to inform an organisation in its everyday decisions and it can guide strategy and act as a rallying point. But when dealing with a department which recently revealed the mantra “Go home” to the world, it is perhaps no surprise that the very framework in which this organisation works to protect children is under question.

Letter from Mark Harper MP on Children and Family Immigration Rules:

http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_735

Letter to Mark Harper MP, Minister of State for Immigration, on new Family Migration Rules: http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_721

Mark Harper tells failed asylum seeker to go home

The Immigration Minister on Sunday told a failed Iraqi asylum seeker to go home live on the BBC current affairs broadcast Sunday Politics West.

The Gloucestershire MP, who told Esam Amin to leave the UK, said the five-time asylum applicant’s claim to stay in Britain was “ridiculous”.

The Conservative politician, a former accountant and noted Eurosceptic, recently backed the Home Office’s controversial ‘Go Home’ campaign targeting undocumented immigrants.

The campaign, which saw vans marked: “Here Illegally? Go Home or Risk Arrest,” drive around areas with high populations of ethnic minorities, has drawn widespread criticism.

Hanson replaces Bryant as Shadow Immigration Minister

Yesterday saw Labour’s David Hanson replace Chris Bryant as Shadow Minister for Immigration in Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet reshuffle.

David Hanson, MP for Delyn, will shadow Conservative Mark Harper, who has held the post of Minister of State for Immigration since 2012. The change came just a day before the publication of Theresa May’s much criticised Immigration Bill.

On discussing his new brief, Hanson said: “The issue of immigration and how both the current Government and any future Labour Government [handle it] is going to be a key issue on the doorstep in North Wales and elsewhere”, reports Wales Online.

Hanson has been on Labour’s frontbench since he joined Tony Blair’s government as a whip in 1998. Not new to the Home Office, he was Minister of State for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing from 2009 to 2010.

He looks set to become a focus of campaigners lobbying for a change in the controversial July 2012 amendments to the family migration rules, which saw the introduction of a £18,600 annual income requirement for those looking to sponsor a non-EEA family member to come to the UK.

The shake-up marks the end of Rhondda MP and former Anglican vicar Chris Bryant’s two-year shadowing of Harper, who is satisfied the rules are working as intended. Bryant, who in August refused to promise to ditch the rules in the event of a Labour election win, will now shadow Rachel Reeves in the Department for Work and Pensions.

The reshuffle also saw Dianne Abbott, whose criticism of Labour’s immigration policy may have contributed to her sacking, get replaced by Luciana Berger as Shadow Public Health Minister.

The announcement of the new Labour frontbench team followed Monday’s surprise appointment of Liberal Democrat Norman Baker to the Home Office.