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.
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