You have to laugh...

[David Johnson]

The Immigration Minister, Mark Harper, the man who came up with the idea of lorries with posters telling illegal immigrants to leave the country or face arrest, the man who is overseeing legislation to give landlords and employers the responsibility to check employees' papers to ensure they are here legally, has resigned from the government after finding out he has been employing an illegal immigrant to clean his house for the last 7 years

[img]http://politicalscrapbook.net/wp-conten ... st-van.jpg[/img]

Is this an episode of "The Thick of it"? You couldn't make it up.

[andy at handiwork]

What's the betting he was paying her less than the minimum wage as well.

[Arginald Valleywater]

Bet she came here when Nu Labor relaxed the rules.....

[spider]

Arinal Valleywater: You really are Priti Patel in disguise and I claim my five pounds.

[max_tranmere]

I think it's a bit steep that he had to quit his job over it though. Most
cleaners are cash-in-hand, no-questions-asked, kind of set-ups.

[David Johnson]

Or alternatively, David Cameron.

Cameron came to power and slashed the budget for flood defences, turned down various requests for funding to carry out dredging on the Somerset Levels just months ago



and then has the brass neck to blame it on the Labour government.

[andy at handiwork]

If you cant see why a member of the government with responsibility for such matters should resign when caught doing what he did, then you really dont have much of a clue do you?

[max_tranmere]

Maybe if he had asked her for her right-to-work papers, she told him
she didn't have any as she was not allowed to work in the UK, and he had
said "oh never mind, we'll keep that to ourselves, come work for me as a
cleaner anyway and we won't tell anyone" then I could understand it. He probably never
asked and she was just paid in cash, probably paid by his wife or housekeeper.
My neighbour has a cleaner, she comes once a week and has done for years. I
doubt he has ever asked her anything other than 'how much for the job?' and
each week she's paid in cash. If we really tighten up these things then all the
people working cash-in-hand will have to stop and will have to show papers
every time they get a job. This will include about 90% of bar and waiting staff
in London, cleaners, removal men, building site labourers and so on.

[andy at handiwork]

If you are in charge of the process that is supposed to be followed by the rest of us, there is no excuse. Its rather like the coppers caught with so-called 'extreme-porn' on their phones. I couldn't care less what porn anybody has a long as it is not of children and is consensual, but when it on the phone of someone who would arrest you if they found it on yours, then hanging's too good for 'em.

[David Johnson]

I don't think you have understood what the Immigration Bill that Harper brought through Parliament is about. One of its terms is that it is the employer responsibility to check that all their employees' immigration papers are in order.

If these checks are not carried out properly then according to the government website "If you do not carry out these checks and are found employing an illegal worker, we will take tough action against you. You would be fined up to ?10,000 for each illegal worker, or face up to 2 years in prison."

It doesn't say much for this legislation, if on the one hand, employers are being threatened with up to 2 years in jail to do something which the Immigration Minister was unable to do himself. What hope has Joe Bloggs, employer have of making sure everything is legal when it is beyond someone with the contacts and power that an Immigration Minister has?