Zack Polanski slams government’s ‘unpaid labour’ scheme
On 29 September, home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that individuals pursuing indefinite leave to remain (‘settlement’) may have to complete voluntary work. The Green Party’s Zack Polanski has described this suggestion as follows:
Deplorable. Forcing people who want to live and work in the UK to undertake compulsory unpaid labour.
This is a dark path Labour is taking down. But there IS an alternative.
Join me in building a welcoming country.https://t.co/zh8KY9rsqg pic.twitter.com/V7jhbpsiZO
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) September 29, 2025
Zack Polanski: Labour heading down a ‘dark path’
Labour has received criticism for its attitude to migration, which many have argued is too close to the Reform Party’s. As reported by the Canary, Starmer described a recent Reform policy related to settlement as “racist” while at the same time seeking to diminish the rights which settled individuals receive.
Labour have claimed there is a ‘clear dividing line’ between their policies and Reform’s, but both parties are targeting migrants. Other parties, meanwhile, are taking a pro-migration approach which is more clearly at odds with Nigel Farage and his Reform Party:
Our community has been enriched by migration. Let’s make the case for friendship, not fear. pic.twitter.com/5Cx8IY5OTG
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) June 28, 2024
The truth: we need migration.
The problem: too many politicians are terrified to say it.
Why? They’re led by a) toxicity of the charlatans & b) wealthy media organisations who demand these useful distractions rather than us talking about inequality.
Reject it. Draw the line.
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) September 22, 2025
Reporting on the announcement, the Guardian reported that Mahmood framed herself as a “tough home secretary”. Other recent home secretaries have presented themselves in a similar fashion:
Speaking about migration, Suella Braverman says “the hurricane is coming.”
Utterly despicable language straight out of the far-right playbook.
There’s no point quoting Percy Shelley, Suella. You sound more like Enoch Powell.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 3, 2023
Zack Polanski has suggested that media attention on migration continues to grow despite the country’s increasingly hardline stance because it serves as a distraction from inequality:
No other party says the basic truth: migration is good for Britain.
The real problem? Inequality, soaring bills, underfunded public services.
That’s driven by the greed of the super rich: not by migrants. https://t.co/NAqi2S1tSl
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) September 10, 2025
Other have also spoken out at the suggestion that migrants may have to complete voluntary work to earn the right to remain in the UK:
The Home Secretary is laying out how to have settled status in Britain people will now have to be a better ‘citizen’ than most citizens and do voluntary work. I wonder will this include foreign medics – and how they will feel when they’re told to go off and do voluntary work…
— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@krishgm) September 29, 2025
The UK government’s latest ludicrous udea.
Foreign nationals will have to do voluntary work if they want to stay in the country.
(Will that include doctors, nurses, teachers, bankers and hedge fund managers?)https://t.co/74oZaipefs— Jeff Crisp (@JFCrisp) September 29, 2025
Compelling people to take on voluntary work so they can live in their long-established home is deeply unethical, but also, highly doubtful the voluntary sector has the capacity to take on so many people, suggesting this policy was made up without much thought https://t.co/88M883qSIY
— Dean Hochlaf (@Dhochlaf) September 29, 2025
this whole thing is so fucking absurd and all for the ignorant brits who have zero clue how migration works in the first place. literally all of these things besides voluntary work is already the process for ILR. https://t.co/27oOKoBxVn
— . (@jkslimpwrist) September 29, 2025
Featured image via Zack Polanski (YouTube) / Labour Party (YouTube)
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Jeremy Corbyn’s statement “Our community has been enriched by migration. Let’s make the case for friendship, not fear” is tellingly liberal and hippy-dippy. Socialism deals in material things, not in vaguely aspirational claims. The working class is not fooled, which is how Reform is able to attract so many from that class. Migration does cause problems in the UK, problems that affect the working class almost entirely and often seriously, but which are of course not the fault of migrants themselves. It is neither shameful nor a bad strategy to address these problems directly and undermine Reform’s arguments, such as showing how Labour is destroying public services because of its capitalist ideology, not because of migration levels.
Bit rich Starmer calling Reform racist while at the same conference announcing a whole raft of racist policies.
Pot calling kettle black.