Portsmouth council leader accuses Reform UK councillor of lying over asylum pledge

At a full Portsmouth City Council meeting, members fiercely opposed a motion tabled by the Reform UK group.

The motion called for the removal of the Council of Sanctuary pledge, which promotes integration, compassion and respect for everyone in the area – including asylum seekers.

The council agreed to the pledge in March 2024, and it was signed by Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative group leaders that October.

Proposed by councillor George Madgwick and seconded by Joe Standen, leader of the opposition, this week’s motion called for the pledge to be removed until a city-wide consultation is held.

Previously Cllr Madgwick, while the leader of the Portsmouth Independent Party (PIP), had claimed that the pledge was “encouraging” illegal immigrants on boats.

Asylum allocations

Asylum seekers are placed through a central system run by the Home Office.

The Home Office has legal duties to support asylum seekers, mainly set out in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and shaped by human rights law. If the government chose not to help, it would be acting unlawfully.

Backlogs and rising applications have led to heavy use of hotels and delays in moving people into longer-term housing.

Neither Portsmouth City Council nor any local authority has influence over whether asylum seekers are placed in the city, or how many are accommodated.

The Home Office has said the council’s sanctuary pledge has “no impact” on asylum placements.

Misinterpretation

The Portsmouth Independent Party (PIP), then led by Cllr Madgwick, launched a fundraising effort in September 2024 to survey residents on the pledge.

A GoFundMe page said the council should not “encourage additional illegal immigrants who come across on the boats”.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service cited Maggie Filipova-Rivers, local authority lead for the City of Sanctuary charity, who said the status simply promotes integration and its title can “prompt misinterpretation”.

Asked whether it would increase asylum numbers, she said: “I can’t see why it would”, as councils have “very little to no control” over allocations.

Survey

Cllr Madgwick falsely claimed the survey results were “independently checked” by The News, Portsmouth.

Even if that were true, it would not validate the survey’s methodology or findings.

In fact, when PIP published its survey results it was reported by The News and the Local Democracy Reporting Service that councillors and experts disputed them as misleading.

More than 4,000 participants were directed to an online survey via leaflets.

A senior University of Portsmouth lecturer described the findings as “essentially meaningless”, noting that valid surveys require random sampling.

The director of think tank British Future also criticised the survey as biased towards respondents most engaged with the issue.

Full council motion

Introducing the motion, Cllr Madgwick said Portsmouth needs a council-run consultation “if you don’t want to trust the independent one” delivered by PIP.

He added that a Reform-led council would scrap the pledge on day one.

Cllr Suzy Horton clarified that Portsmouth is a City of Sanctuary and is working towards Council of Sanctuary status.

“Some people conflate the two,” she said, explaining that City of Sanctuary is a national charity, while Council of Sanctuary is an accreditation programme, similar to White Ribbon UK or being a Disability Confident employer.

On costs, she said the last city-wide survey cost about £15,000, compared with a £250 annual fee for the status.

Cllr Charlotte Gerada, Labour group leader, said Reform “think they’re really smart” bringing the motion before May’s local elections.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if their dear leader Nigel Farage is waiting to get the green light so he can make media appearances about what we decide today.”

She said the motion could not be more “politically naive”, citing the Iran-US war which Mr Farage initially supported before he “changed his tune”.

“They supported creating more refugees, millions more,” she added.

“At this point I’m unsure if they understand the basic logic of cause and effect.”

She also noted that no PIP members opposed the original 2024 motion.

In response, Cllr Standen said: “we don’t feel like this is the smart thing to do, we feel like this is the right thing to do” in giving residents a choice.

“If people don’t think that it’s the right thing to do to take out a tyrannical dictator then you need more help than I first thought.

“I can assure you that if this motion is not passed today you will be punished in the ballot boxes in May.”

Labour Cllr Tom Coles said the motion is “clearly pre-election leaflet fodder, they know the motion has no hope of success yet they bring it forth to us today so that their election material can say their attempts to restrict immigration was shot down by the liberal wokerati.

He called it “performative posturing, more suited to reality TV than this city’s great council chamber”.

Council leader Cllr Steve Pitt said “absolutely nothing would change” if the motion passed.

He noted that councillors Madgwick and Strudwick had approved the council’s corporate plan, which included working towards the status.

Referring to a social media post by Cllr Madgwick suggesting the pledge would increase asylum numbers, he said: “That is a lie, it does not, it never did and it never will.”

He added that he and others “have taken abusive threats and worse because of that lie”.

Cllr Madgwick replied that PIP did not challenge the motion earlier as they expected further approvals. He agreed that democracy is decided at the ballot box and said the upcoming elections would see a Labour “wipeout”.

He also accused Labour of hypocrisy, citing Tony Blair’s intervention in Iraq based on “false information on weapons of mass destruction”.

Home Office

Responding to Cllr Madgwick’s Facebook post claiming the sanctuary pledge “encourages more migrants” to come to Portsmouth, a Home Office spokesperson said:

“We do not have any agreement with Portsmouth City Council to increase asylum seeker dispersal based on their sanctuary status – this has no impact on where they are accommodated.

“The Home Secretary has set out the most sweeping changes to our asylum system in a generation to restore order and control to our borders.

“This government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well under way, with more suitable sites, such as military barracks, being brought forward to reduce the impact on communities.”

With reference to the line in this story 'Cllr Madgwick falsely claimed the survey results were “independently checked” by The News, Portsmouth’, The News is happy to add the following clarification. The survey results in question were shown to the Local Democracy Reporting Service reporter who supplies council stories to The News, however these results were not independently checked or verified by the reporter.