Britain | Attitudes to immigration

When it comes to refugees, Britons are both harsh and liberal

No wonder their government is confused

IT HAS BEEN a rough week for anti-immigrant populism. On February 28th the House of Lords torpedoed a flagship government bill that would criminalise asylum-seekers and make it easier to strip people of British nationality. More than 1,000 religious leaders had declared themselves “horrified and appalled” by the bill. Meanwhile YouGov, a pollster, revealed that 77% of people supported allowing Ukrainian refugees to come to Britain without a visa. Has the country gone soft?

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Form an orderly queue”

The horror ahead

From the March 5th 2022 edition

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