Suella Braverman has declared a war on rights that we must win

Yes­ter­day, Home Sec­re­tary Suel­la Braver­man gave a speech. The 4,497-word pre­sen­ta­tion at the right wing Amer­i­can Enter­prise Insti­tute in Wash­ing­ton DC, marks a new low in the assault on hard won legal rights, often pro­mot­ed by inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions or guar­an­teed by treaties.

The first of those inter­na­tion­al instru­ments, the UN Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights, cel­e­brat­ed its 80^th anniver­sary just a few weeks ago. In the rub­ble of post War Europe, the UN declared that ​“the inher­ent and inalien­able rights of all mem­bers of the human fam­i­ly was the foun­da­tion of free­dom, jus­tice and peace in the world”. 

This inter­na­tion­al con­sen­sus led to a range of bind­ing treaties includ­ing the 1951 Refugee Con­ven­tion, that Braver­man round­ly trashed on Tues­day and the Euro­pean Con­ven­tion on Human Rights that the Tories detest so much. That Braver­man chose to make such a speech in Wash­ing­ton is both high­ly sig­nif­i­cant and ironic.

The sig­nif­i­cance lies in the alliance that the Amer­i­can and British right seek to forge on these issues. The attack on migrants and mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism was framed by Braver­man as ​“an exis­ten­tial chal­lenge for the polit­i­cal and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions of the West” with ​“uncon­trolled immi­gra­tion, inad­e­quate inte­gra­tion and a mis­guid­ed dog­ma of mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, a tox­ic com­bi­na­tion for Europe”. 

Make no mis­take, just as Mar­garet Thatch­er and Ronald Rea­gan once com­bined to dis­man­tle the agreed eco­nom­ic order with their neolib­er­al rev­o­lu­tion, so the forces of the right now seek to rip up our social and polit­i­cal rights. They want to re-define the type of soci­ety that we live in. Vil­i­fy­ing migrants and the very idea of mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, restrict­ing our right to protest and pro­claim­ing a false nation­al sov­er­eign­ty over inter­na­tion­al agree­ments are all part of the same play­book. A Trumpian polit­i­cal gam­bit to keep the right in pow­er, no mat­ter what the cost. A cul­tur­al war if you like. 

The irony lies in the fact a daugh­ter of an immi­grant, who is the cur­rent Home Sec­re­tary serv­ing under a Prime Min­is­ter who him­self is the son of an immi­grant, could make a speech that so close­ly echoes Enoch Pow­ell. Even worse is how syn­ony­mous the US has become with this intol­er­ance. After all, Eleanor Roo­sevelt, a for­mer first lady, was the first chair of the UN Com­mis­sion on Human Rights and over­saw the draft­ing of the Dec­la­ra­tion on Human Rights. 

More intrigu­ing is the views of the right’s own demi-god, Ronald Regan.

In his last speech as US Pres­i­dent, some­times referred to as a love let­ter to immi­gra­tion, he said that the US had strength because Amer­i­cans came from every coun­try and every cor­ner of the world, renew­ing and enrich­ing their nation. Point­ed­ly he said that ​“If we ever close our door to new arrivals, our lead­er­ship of the world will be lost”

The Repub­li­can par­ty (and indeed the Tory par­ty, who sacked Enoch Pow­ell) have trav­elled some dis­tance on immi­gra­tion. They see dog whis­tle pol­i­tics as the route to pow­er and the means to hold on to it. 

The left needs to block that route, not just by elec­toral suc­cess but by show­ing lead­er­ship on the issues, pro­claim­ing pride in mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, our human rights and wel­com­ing refugees. It will not be good enough to reach some sort of accom­mo­da­tion that we did with neo-lib­er­al eco­nom­ics. We will do the same things, but with more com­pas­sion. Not this time. This time a cul­tur­al war has been declared, and we have to win it.

Raj Cha­da is the head of the Crim­i­nal Defence, Finan­cial Crime and Reg­u­la­to­ry Depart­ment at Hodge, Jones and Allen. 

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