On the 25th October the Bexhill and Battle Labour Party branch released a statement regarding the proposed Northeye camp in Bexhill. In the statement of under 150 words, their only comment was regarding the price the British government has paid for the site. District Councillor Christine Bayliss is quoted as stating that the £15.3 million spent on the site could have been better spent in elsewhere in the region. This is reported to be roughly £9 million more than the price the developers brought the site for last year. The statement also mentions Labour’s plan to “take back control” of the asylum system.

Northeye is a proposed migrant detention camp situated in Little Common, Bexhill. Formally a prison until the 90’s, the site has since had a stint as student housing. Under the Sunak ministry the government has re-purchased the land, and intends to use it as a closed camp for migrants after it completes some further assessments and surveys of the site. This proposal forms part of the Conversatives’ immigration policy, under their banner of “Stop The Boats”. The government’s line on these camps (along with deportations to Rwanda) is that they will deter people from entering Britain “illegally”.

Labour’s statement marks their first public statement on the camp since March, when candidates for District Council raised their “concerns” of the proposal being short sighted and concerning. In the meantime, numerous local demonstrations (both progressive and reactionary) have taken place, the government has gone on to purchase the site, and the purpose of the site has been changed to that of a detention camp. Yet the only statement made by Labour has been to criticise the financial efficiency of the government.

When it comes to the Labour party, this isn’t a surprise. Despite occasionally marketing itself as a socialist party of working people, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Under the leadership of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the party has consistently signaled its fealty to capital and their so called “fiscal responsibility”, with many remarking the striking similarity to Conversative talking points. They have proven themselves to be at odds with trade unions, and in service of bourgeois class interests.

So what does this tell us about the Labour party? Labour would have us believe that the main issue is that the government is inefficient with money, and too disorganised to “solve” immigration issues. This obscures the real issues that drive the state to build camps like Northeye, including but not limited to: imperialism, racial capitalism, and the economic domination of the Global South.

Some like to call the Labour party: Tory Lite. Labour have recently described themselves as Changed Labour. Beyond Tory Lite, and beyond Changed Labour, we are seeing the reemergence of something far more sinister. Labour has stated that they intend to be more effecient than the Conversatives. We should take them at their word. They intend to be more effiecient at closing safe routes for migrants, to deporting people, to detaining migrants in detention camps. Somehow amongst this, some on the left still believe Labour is a threat to capital. Labour is not a threat to capital, but a weapon of capital. Their target is the working and oppressed people.