DIANE ABBOTT, UK Labour Shadow Home Secretary, will claim the Tories have "weaponised" immigration in her speech to the party's annual conference in Brighton today.
She will promise that Jeremy Corbyn will not "scapegoat" immigrants and Labour will have a "reasonable" approach to managing migration. The Labour leadership faces a potential challenge over immigration, with senior pro-European Union figures backing a motion calling for the party to commit to maintaining free movement of people from the continent after Brexit.
Abbott will also use her speech to restate Labour's commitment to reversing cuts in police budgets and review the "toxic" Prevent anti-extremist strategy.
Ms Abbott will insist Labour's approach to immigration will be based on "fairness" and "reasonable management".
She will say: "Tory opportunism on immigration is a disgrace. They continue to talk about bogus immigration targets, which they have not met and will never meet. They have pandered to anti-immigrant sentiment whatever the cost to the economy and communities."
On policing, Ms Abbott will stress "you cannot keep the nation secure on the cheap", pledging to reverse funding cuts and recruit 10,000 new officers.
On Prevent, she will say: "As part of combatting terrorism effectively, Labour is committed to a thorough review of the Prevent strand of counter-terrorism policy. Increasingly there is a concern that Prevent is a toxic brand and not fit for purpose. Trampling on our civil liberties will do the terrorists' work for them."
She will also use her speech to refer to the Grenfell Tower disaster, asking why commissioners had not been sent in by the Government to take over the running of the "failing" Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council.
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