September 26, 2008 - By Lee Hancock

With Boris Johnson’s recent pandering to the Muslim vote, the true face of the Tory Party has been revealed once again with a senior member calling for an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Anthony Browne, who is Tory London Mayor Boris Johnson’s policy director, has said that illegal immigrants who have been living in Britain for seven years should be offered an amnesty.

The amnesty would allow them to become residents and earn citizenship. His comments will form the basis of a pamphlet on the subject to be published by Policy Exchange, the Conservative’s top think tank that has enormous influence on Tory Leader David Cameron, later this year.

Writing in The Independent, Browne said ”there is simply no prospect of a mass deportation of illegal immigrants” and an amnesty would be “far fairer, humane, better for society and more economically efficient” than the present system of, well, simply ignoring the issue until such a time as people like himself think they can get away with the amnesty idea. Obviously now seems to be that time.

In an interesting comment, Browne admitted that the present system makes no real effort to address the problem:

“Deportations are also incredibly time consuming and expensive, making it difficult for the Government to meet even its comparatively modest deportation targets.”

Astonishingly, Browne is considered to be on the “right” of the Conservative Party. As head of the Policy Exchange think tank, he oversaw the publication of pamphlets that heavily criticised militant Islam, warning of “reactionaries” who were “hijacking British Islam” through the “subverting of mosques.”

The Muslim Council of Britain, never a group that believes in self-analysis, are not great fans of Policy Exchange and Mr. Browne:

 ”It is a clearly agenda-driven, anti-Muslim organization. It has consistently tried to promote an apolitical version of Islam. And it clearly does have influence. Anthony Browne being appointed as Boris Johnson’s policy adviser was a tremendously alarming move.”

Well they shouldn’t have worried, because as was reported in an earlier story today by BNP News, Boris Johnson has promised to rein in his new policy director, promising the Muslim News that Browne was “utterly committed to a glorious multi racial multi ethnic, multi faith London in which we emphasise the achievements of all communities and he will be going out of his way to prove that point.”

And with Browne’s comments on the amnesty issue today, it seems that the Conservatives talk the talk when in opposition, but as soon as they get their hands on the reins of power, as with Browne and Boris Johnson’s past “right-wing” comments, their true political leanings come to the fore very quickly.