Proposed amendment to Immigration Bill fails after being slammed by charities and parliamentary colleagues alike
Dr Phillip Lee MP, who proposed the amendment
A CONSERVATIVE member of parliament was criticised this week for suggesting all immigrants to Britain are screened for HIV – and banned from entry if they carry the virus.
Writing in The Independent last week, Dr Phillip Lee said he had tabled an amendment to the Immigration Bill to “to protect our public health from the risk of communicable diseases – specifically blood-borne viruses like hepatitis B and HIV”.
The Bracknell MP continued: “We need to know who carries these diseases if we are to treat them, stop the diseases from spreading and, ultimately, eliminate them. These are the first steps – along with prevention measures and, where possible, cures – towards the goal of eradication.
“In 2012, we introduced a screening programme for immigrants to the UK from countries with a high incidence of tuberculosis before they could be granted a visa for entry. We should now do the same for hepatitis B, HIV and other blood-borne diseases.”
But fellow Tory MP Margot James criticised the plans. She told the Pinknews website on Twitter: “Govt cdn’t and wdn’t ban immigrants on HIV status, UK Government has signed up to the UN declaration against such discrimination”.
It was backed by 17 other Conervative MPs, including Stephen Barclay, Tracey Crouch and Dr Sarah Wollaston, but failed to pass after receiving limited support.
NAT Chief Executive Deborah Jack told the website: “The UK has for 30 years resisted entry restrictions and to introduce them at this stage would set us squarely against the international trend to overturn such rules.
“This is HIV prejudice in its purest form.”
The Terrence Higgins Trusts called it “outrageous that a group of MPs are even proposing such an un-evidenced amendment.
Daisy Ellis, head of parliamentary and public affairs at the organisation, told the Huffington Post: “If implemented, it would represent the most draconian policy enforced on people with HIV by this country to date.
“It is to the UK’s credit that its Government, whatever its political stamp, has consistently refused throughout the past 30 years to put in place HIV-related border controls. Such a poorly thought through about-face would take UK HIV policy into a new Dark Age.”
