Civil liberties group sending out its own van with message saying "Stirring up tension and division in the UK illegally? Home Office, think again"
Civil liberties group Liberty says it is responding to the recent Home Office "go home or face arrest" van controversy by sending its own van to London's streets with an alternative message.
Dubbing the Home Office vans "anti-immigrant" and noting the racist and National Front connotations of the "go home" slogan, Liberty says that the vans were deeply offensive and divisive and in breach of the Equality Act 2010 so therefore unlawful.
In response, Liberty will today send out a van with a billboard saying: "Stirring up tension and division in the UK illegally? Home Office, think again".
Liberty says its van will circle the Home Office, Westminster and the surrounding area in the morning, before visiting Kensal Green and Walthamstow – two of the London boroughs targeted during the spot-checks – in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the London Evening Standard reported today that David Cameron has given his backing to Immigration Minister Mark Harper over the controversial spot-checks carried out in London in an attempt to find immigrants illegally in the UK.
According to the Standard, a government spokesman insisted that that the checks were "intelligence-led" and did not specifically target racial groups.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said: "This was an operational issue and it was signed off by the Immigration Minister Mark Harper. This is something that happens on a reasonably regular basis. The figure from the Home Office was that there had been 228 street operations since 2008 across the UK."
He continued: "The operations were intelligence-led. The important thing is that the operations were intelligence-led and the policy was very clear: officers must not engage a person on the basis of their appearance, race, colour, ethnic origin or nationality."
The spokesman added that David Cameron had full confidence in Mark Harper.
On Sunday, the leading black Conservative adviser and former speechwriter for Mrs Thatcher, Derek Laud, wrote in the Independent that he believes the "go home or face arrest" van and the subsequent high-profile spot-checks has shown the Conservative Party to be racist.
"As an aide to three Tory leaders, it saddens me to say this. I have never called anyone racist. It is an often used and discredited cry. But this time, I believe the Conservative Party has shown it is racist. It will do anything, right or wrong, to bolster its poll ratings," Laud wrote.