Welcome to the first digital-only issue of Legal Action. A lot has happened since the previous issue dropped through your door.

The summer (what we had of it) was overshadowed by the far right, who targeted asylum-seekers and their Home Office hotel accommodation, and then set their sights on migrant support groups and immigration lawyers (see page 4 of this issue). The scale of the violence was frightening, as was the threat of more to come. For those of us who aren’t people of colour, and so don’t tend to attract the attention of the far right in our day-to-day lives, it felt unusually close to home – colleagues with whom I had previously worked were afraid to venture into the office.

The first I heard was when Vicky Fewkes from Ealing Law Centre (where I had been a trustee) sent me a message to say it was revising its risk assessments. I didn’t understand why, at first, until she told me it was because immigration lawyers were being targeted. I then got a message that the staff at a national organisation based on the Ealing/Brentford border had received a message to leave the office as there were big protests planned.

I asked Vicky if the Law Centre had received threats. It hadn’t, but it had nonetheless taken the precaution of removing its details from social media and from the council’s information lists. I felt worried for my colleagues and helpless in equal measure, unsure how to show support them. In the end, I posted on social media that LAG would provide free access to our online resources for anyone who was forced to work at home due to safety fears. It felt like the only practical thing I could do.

It wasn’t only the advice community that was feeling fearful.

I was on leave that day, spending it with a friend. As we mooched around a garden centre, we were approached by two women who were concerned to tell us it was closing because of the threatened disorder. I was sceptical, as the beautiful grounds of Syon House, along the River Thames, seemed an unlikely target for racists, so we continued to shop until we were the last ones in the garden centre and were asked to leave. Staff were scared; they wanted to go home.

That fear was also palpable along my local high street in a leafy part of west London. I felt it, too. It was eerily quiet as we ventured out that evening. Restaurants and shops were shuttered. Only the fish-and-chip shop remained open – well, locked but open. They let us in and then relocked the door while they cooked our dinner.

Thankfully, the far-right violence that day didn’t materialise, and instead anti-racist protestors took to the streets in huge numbers to show solidarity with asylum-seekers and migrants.

It was an unnerving period, but I think people outside the Home Office-created hostile environment got a taste of what it is like for those inside. My hope is that more of us will now have empathy for those who are usually the targets of anti-migrant hatred and understand why the rhetoric of the far right has to be stopped.

As we now have a new government (oh yes, that other bit of news …), it is time to implement active measures to curb the hostile environment that has been fuelled by the inflammatory language of the last one. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on the UK to ‘adopt comprehensive measures to discourage and combat racist hate speech and xenophobic discourse by political and public figures’ and ensure that such cases are ‘effectively investigated and sanctioned’ (Amelia Gentleman, ‘UK must curb rise in racist hate speech by politicians and public figures, UN says’, Guardian, 23 August 2024).

We ask that our new Labour government stands up and speaks out against the racist rhetoric of the past 14 years, and starts the work now to create an inclusive, compassionate society.

Oh, and can it also do something about legal aid too …