Tony Blair opened UK borders to east European migrants despite misgivings – newly released files show
Tony Blair’s Labour government pushed on with plans to open the UK’s borders to Eastern Europe despite mounting concerns from senior ministers, according to newly released official files.
The former prime minister relaxed immigration controls in 2004 after eight mainly former Soviet states, including Poland, Lithuania and Hungary, joined the EU.
Papers given to the National Archives in London show then deputy PM John Prescott and foreign secretary Jack Straw both urged delay to the policy, warning of a surge in immigration unless some restrictions were put in place.
But others – including then home secretary David Blunkett – argued that the economy needed the “flexibility and productivity of migrant labour” if it was to continue to prosper.
The records emerged as part of a yearly release of Cabinet Office files once they are 20 years old.
The papers also show:
- Ministers in Blair’s government were advised to use post-it notes for sensitive messages to avoid having to release them under new Freedom of Information laws, which they had passed.
- A senior US official warned the British ambassador to the US that George W Bush believed he was on a “mission from God” to crush Iraqi insurgents and had to be given a “dose of reality”.
- Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi felt like a “jilted lover” after being shut out of talks between Blair and the leaders of France and Germany.
- Former prime minister Sir John Major privately wrote to Blair urging him to order England’s cricket team not to compete in a “morally repugnant” tour in Zimbabwe amid concerns about its human rights record under Robert Mugabe.
Then foreign secretary Jack Straw had reservations about the plan
Calls for open borders re-think
The Blair government’s open borders policy is seen as having helped fuel anti-EU sentiment by the time of the Brexit referendum in 2016.
There was a major increase in immigration in the years that followed, with net migration rising to more than 200,000 a year and cheaper foreign labour blamed for undercutting local workers.
In 2013, Mr Straw admitted that the failure to put in place any transitional controls – as nearly all other EU nations had done – had been a “spectacular mistake” which had far-reaching consequences.
According to the Cabinet papers, the Home Office had predicted the impact of allowing unrestricted access to the UK jobs market for the new countries would be relatively limited – but within weeks the numbers arriving were far outstripping previous estimates.
Three months before the policy was due to be implemented, Mr Straw wrote to Mr Blair calling for a re-think, warning that other countries “who we thought would be joining us have begun to peel away”.
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Sir Tony Blair on leadership
“France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece and Luxembourg are all imposing transition periods of at least two years. Portugal is likely to follow suit,” he wrote.
“Italy is undecided. Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark – who were with us – have all announced the introduction of work and/or residence permits for those wishing to avail themselves of the concession.”
He was backed by Mr Prescott who said he was “extremely concerned” about the pressures on social housing from a sudden influx of new migrants.
However Mr Blunkett, backed by work and pensions secretary Andrew Smith and the Treasury, insisted they should stick with the plan on “economic grounds”.
Then Home Secretary David Blunkett backed the policy
He said that they would be tightening the regulations to stop migrants travelling to the UK simply to claim benefits but rejected calls for a work permit scheme as “not only expensive and bureaucratic but I believe ineffective”.
Mr Blair appeared to also express doubts, questioning whether tougher benefit rules on their own would be enough.
“Are we sure this does the trick? I don’t want to have to return to it,” he said in a handwritten note.
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“I am not sure we shouldn’t have a work permits approach also. Why not? It gives us an extra string to our bow.”
Mr Blair also stressed the need to send out a deterrent “message” about benefits, writing in a note: “We must do the toughest package on benefits possible & announce this plus power to revoke visa plan and message to Romas.”
Bush ‘on mission from God’ in Iraq
Elsewhere in the Cabinet files, there was a record of frank conversations between Richard Armitage, the US deputy Secretary of State, and Britain’s ambassador to the US at the time, Sir David Manning, about the Iraq War.
In one meeting, Mr Armitage dismissed claims by the US commander in Iraq that he could put down a major uprising in the city of Fallujah within days as “bulls**t” and “politically crass”, and appealed for Mr Blair to use his influence with Mr Bush to persuade him there needed to be a wider “political process” if order was to be restored.
Tony Blair with George Bush
In another meeting, Mr Armitage spoke of President Bush being faced with a “dose of reality” about the conflict.
Sir David reported: “Rich summed it all up by saying that Bush still thought he was on some sort of a mission from God, but that recent events had made him ‘rather more sober’.”
Italian PM felt like ‘jilted lover’
Other papers described a fall-out with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi after he was excluded from a trilateral summit of the UK, France and Germany.
He is said to have been “hurt” because unlike the other two nations he had backed Britain and the US over the invasion of Iraq, and threatened to challenge Britain’s EU rebate at every opportunity as a result.
In a report of a meeting between Britain’s ambassador to Rome, Sir Ivor Roberts, and Mr Berlusconi’s foreign affairs adviser, Giovanni Castellaneta, Sir Ivor wrote: “The gist of what he had to say was that Berlusconi was feeling badly let down by the prime minister.
Tony Blair with Silvio Berlusconi inside number 10 Downing Street.
“He actually used the image of a jilted lover (very Berlusconi) and added that there was something of the southern Italian about Berlusconi which made him quite vindictive when he thought his affections had been misplaced or betrayed.
“The word ‘tradito’ (betrayed) came up quite often.”
The row even came up during a video conference between Mr Blair and Mr Bush the following week, with the US president expressing “some concern in a jokey way, on Berlusconi’s behalf, over Italy’s exclusion”, according to a Downing Street note of the call.
In the face of such concerns, Mr Blair felt it necessary to travel to Rome to personally placate the unhappy premier and assure him of his continuing support.
John Major’s Zimbabwe intervention
The papers also revealed that former Conservative prime minister John Major – who preceded Mr Blair – privately wrote to his successor to urge him to “indemnify” English cricket for any financial losses if it was sanctioned for pulling out of a controversial tour of Zimbabwe.
Sir John, a noted cricket fan, said the tour was “morally repugnant” given Robert Mugabe’s human rights record, but pointed out that “draconian” rules by the world game’s governing body (ICC) imposed penalties on countries for cancelling – putting English cricket at risk of bankruptcy.
The letter came after Mr Blair had told MPs that in his “personal opinion” the tour should be abandoned, but it would “step over the proper line” for ministers to issue an instruction
Sir John Major
Mr Major said if the government “expresses a view” that the tour should not go ahead – or there was a vote in parliament to that effect – then it would be “very difficult” for the ICC to penalise England.
And in the “very unlikely circumstances” that it were to do so, he said the government should indemnify the ICC for any financial losses.
“I daresay the Treasury would hate this, but the blunt truth is that the government could not let English cricket go to the wall because of a refusal to intervene,” Mr Major wrote.
The tour ultimately went ahead.
Ministers urged to communicate in post-it notes
Meanwhile, other papers revealed that ministers in Blair’s government were advised to use post-it notes for sensitive messages to avoid having to release them under the new Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.
The Labour government had passed the bill in 2000, which requires public bodies to disclose information requested by the public, but as its full implementation date crept up in 2005 there was growing disquiet about its implications.
One No 10 adviser wrote to Mr Blair suggesting post-it notes – which could presumably then be thrown away once the message had been read – as a way of getting round the requirement to disclose official material in response to FoI requests.
UK
Manhunt for Epping hotel asylum seeker, jailed for sexually assaulting girl, after accidental release
A manhunt has been launched for an accidentally released asylum seeker who was jailed for 12 months earlier this year after he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu had been staying at The Bell Hotel in the Essex town, with the incident fuelling weeks of protests at the site.
The Ethiopian national was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and harassment without violence earlier this month.
District judge Christopher Williams said Kebatu posed a “significant risk of reoffending” when he sentenced him to 12 months in prison in September.
Sky News understands Hadush Kebatu was being released from HMP Chelmsford as he was due to be immediately deported.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was jailed for two sexual assaults in Epping. Pic: Essex Police / PA
He was released on the expectation that he would be picked up by immigration enforcement, but it is currently unclear what happened next. It is understood that the Home Office was ready to take Kebatu to an immigration removal centre.
Sky sources say the search for Kebatu is within Essex, which launched a manhunt after he was accidentally freed on Friday morning.
Kebatu’s lawyer, Molly Dyas, told Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court during his trial that it was his “firm wish” to be deported.
Under the UK Borders Act 2007, a deportation order must be made where a foreign national has been convicted of an offence and received a custodial sentence of at least 12 months.
Kebatu was accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford. Pic: iStock
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is said to be furious and has ordered an investigation and is supporting police efforts, according to a Government source.
Mr Lammy said in a post on X that he is “appalled at the release in error”, adding: “Kebatu must be deported for his crimes, not on our streets.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “The Epping hotel migrant sex attacker has been accidentally freed rather than deported. He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Kebatu was released as a result of “the entire system collapsing under Labour”.
Chelmsford MP Marie Goldman said in a statement following the accidental release: “The police must do everything they can to ensure that this man is returned to custody immediately so that he is deported at once.
“Once the manhunt is over, there must be a full, rapid public inquiry into how this happened. This is utterly unacceptable and has potentially put my constituents in danger. I expect answers from the Prison Service.”
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, left, in a court sketch. Pic: Elizabeth Cook/PA
The Prison Service said in a statement that it was “urgently working with police to return an offender to custody following a release in error at HMP Chelmsford”.
“Public protection is our top priority and we have launched an investigation into this incident,” a spokesperson added.
It is understood that releases in error are incredibly rare and are taken extremely seriously by the Prison Service.
But policing and crime commentator Danny Shadow says that releases in error are actually not uncommon.
“Last year, there were 87 prisoners who were released in error. So that’s around six or so every single month. Seventy were released from error from prisons and another 17 from the courts,” the former Labour home affairs advisor told Sky News.
An officer has been removed from duties to discharge prisoners while the investigation is ongoing.
Kebatu was staying at the Bell Hotel in Epping. Pic: PA
During his trial, the court heard that Kebatu had tried to kiss the teenager, put his hand on her thigh and brushed her hair after she offered him pizza.
The asylum seeker also told the girl and her friend he wanted to have a baby with them and invited them back to the hotel.
The incident happened on 7 July, about a week after he arrived in the UK on a boat.
The girl later told police she “froze” and got “really creeped out”, telling him: “No, I’m 14.”
The Bell Hotel has been the site of protests over the summer. Pic: AP
Kebatu was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman – putting his hand on her thigh and trying to kiss her – when she tried to intervene after seeing him talking to the girl again the following day.
The incidents sparked anti-migrant protests and counter-protests outside the former Bell Hotel in Epping – as well as at hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.
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An asylum seeker has been found guilty of murdering a hotel worker at a train station in the West Midlands.
Deng Chol Majek was caught on CCTV following Rhiannon Skye Whyte from the Park Inn hotel, in Walsall, where he lived and she worked, to the nearby Bescot Stadium station.
She was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver 19 times, and 23 times in total, on 20 October last year.
Deng Chol Majek. Pic: PA
Mr Majek, who is from Sudan and claims to be 19 years old, had told Wolverhampton Crown Court he was at the hotel for asylum seekers at the time the 27-year-old was attacked.
A two-week trial heard that Mr Majek had previously been reported to security at the hotel after “spookily” staring at three female staff members for prolonged periods.
Ms Skye died in hospital three days after the attack, having been found injured in a shelter on the platform by the driver and guard of a train which pulled in about five minutes later.
Rhiannon Skye Whyte. Pic: Family handout/PA
Mr Majek, who is about ten inches taller than Ms Whyte, walked to the Caldmore Green area of Walsall after the attack to buy beer, and was recorded on CCTV apparently wiping blood from his trousers.
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He returned to the hotel at 12.13am, changed his bloodstained flip-flops for trainers, and was seen dancing with other residents in the car park, within sight of emergency vehicles called to the station.
Asked by defence KC Gurdeep Garcha if he was at the train station when Ms Whyte was stabbed, Mr Majek replied: “No.”
He also denied being “responsible for that fatal assault” on the platform.
CCTV from the reception area of the hotel alleged to show Deng Chol Majek staring at Rhiannon Whyte, left. Pic: PA
Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said of Mr Majek’s behaviour after the murder: “He is celebrating, his mood has changed from that prolonged scowl before the murder to dancing and joy after the murder. It is utterly callous.”
Mr Majek said he had spent time in Libya, Italy and Germany before arriving in the UK to claim asylum in July last year.
He will be sentenced at a later date.
‘She was always happy’
Rhiannon’s sister, Alex Whyte, said her sibling “always wanted to make everyone else around her happy”.
She said: “Rhiannon had such a quirky personality. You would hear her before you’d see her.
“No matter what her day had been, she always wanted to make everyone else around her happy. She always prioritised family. That was the most important thing to Rhiannon. Obviously, she has a brother and three sisters. And my mum, who was her best friend.”
She added: “Rhiannon is the second youngest. But our baby sister would always say ‘I’m your big little sister’, because Rhiannon was very soft.
“So, no matter what, we always wanted to protect her. That was our priority most of our life, because Rhiannon never saw danger – Rhiannon never understood how scary the world really could be.
“But no matter what Rhiannon was just happy, always.”
Plaid Cymru have won the by-election in the Senedd seat of Caerphilly for the first time.
The Welsh nationalist party secured 15,960 votes – and candidate Lindsay Whittle cried as the result was announced.
Mr Whittle is 72 years old and had stood as a Plaid candidate 13 times since 1983. He will now hold the seat until the Welsh Assembly’s national elections next year.
This by-election was widely regarded as a two-horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, and the result marks a considerable blow for Nigel Farage.
His candidate Llyr Powell received 12,113 votes – denying a victory that would have strengthened claims that Reform can convert a large lead in opinion polls into election wins.
Nonetheless, the party’s performance is a marked improvement on 2021, when it received just 495 votes.
More than anything, the result is a humiliating and historic defeat for Labour, who had held Caerphilly at every Senedd election since it was created in 1999 – as well as the Westminster seat for over a century.
Its candidate Richard Tunnicliffe secured 3,713 votes and finished in third place, with Welsh Labour describing it as a “by-election in the toughest of circumstances, and in the midst of difficult headwinds nationally”.
Turnout overall stood at 50.43% – considerably higher than during the last ballot back in 2021.
Giving his acceptance speech after the result was confirmed, Mr Whittle began by paying tribute to Hefin David – who was Welsh Labour’s Member of the Senedd for Caerphilly until his death in August.
“He will be a hard act to follow,” Mr Whittle said. “I will never fill his shoes – but I promise you, I will walk the same path that he did.”
The Plaid politician described how he had been “absolutely heartened” by how many young people were involved in the by-election – and said the result sends a clear message.
He said: “Listen now Cardiff and listen Westminster – this is Caerphilly and Wales telling you we want a better deal for every corner of Wales. The big parties need to sit up and take notice.
“Wales, we are at the dawn of new leadership, we are at the dawn of a new beginning – and I look forward to playing my part for a new Wales, and in particular, for the people of the Caerphilly constituency. I thank you with all my heart.”
Mr Whittle quipped Plaid’s victory “was better than scoring the winning try for Wales in the Rugby World Cup”.
And looking ahead to the next year’s elections, he added: “[This] result shows what’s possible when people come together to back practical solutions and protect what matters most.
“We’ve beaten billionaire-backed Reform and, with the same determination, we can do it again in May 2026. Caerphilly has shown the way – now Wales must follow.”
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How tactical voting helped Plaid Cymru
Speaking to Sky’s chief political correspondent Jon Craig just before the declaration, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “There’s clearly a real significance to the result – we are seeing the disillusionment with Labour writ large. I’ve heard it on hundreds of doorsteps, we’ve seen it in opinion polls.”
He conceded there was tactical voting in this by-election – with Labour and Conservative supporters alike backing Lindsay Whittle to keep out Reform.
However, Mr ap Iorwerth added: “I’ve spoken to literally hundreds and hundreds of people who told me – time and time again – ‘I’ve been a Labour supporter all my life, and we’re backing you this time.’
“Not begrudgingly, but because they see that’s the direction we’re going in – not just in this by-election, but as a nation. I’m calling on people to get behind that positive change – not just today, but ahead of next May.”
First Minister Eluned Morgan congratulated Mr Whittle on his return to the Senedd and said: “Welsh Labour has heard the frustration on doorsteps in Caerphilly that the need to feel change in people’s lives has not been quick enough.
“We take our share of the responsibility for this result. We are listening, we are learning the lessons, and we will be come back stronger.”
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were among the parties who lost their deposits.
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