Deporting rough sleepers is as calculated as it is callous.

The latest policy emanating from the Home Office is despicable, even by their sub-human standards.

The government apparently wants to clamp down on the issue of rough sleeping. Well, you say, that’s all well and good, where have you been since 2010 as you’ve sent it skyrocketing by 165%? Ah, a closer look and they don’t actually want to tackle the issue of rough sleeping itself: bizarrely they intend to crack down on rough sleepers, as in you know, the actual individuals sleeping on the street very often as a direct consequence of the policy rollout since 2010.

That’s right, they stooped even lower. The government intends to have the option of revoking right to be here for people who’ve come to this country and ended up sleeping on the street. Anyone who stops to seriously think about this sees a moral and ethical abomination, but there’s more to it then that.

One of the most obscene aspects of this is they clearly hope to get the homelessness figures down by kicking people out of the country rather than actually dealing with the underlying issues in our economy and social safety net that effect native born Brits and immigrants alike. If that isn’t a pretty solid microcosm of Tory policy I don’t know what is. Not only is deporting immigrants for the sheer nerve of being homeless, the government has a genuine statistical policy goal in mind.

Almost worse, this is obviously a play in the culture war. The myth of scrounging immigrants sucking the welfare state dry and bankrupting us runs through this policy like blood through veins. Priti Patel’s Home Office has taken the shameful actions of its previous incarnations, and taken them to even more chilling extremes. Don’t forget, they may yet stoop lower, and there are voters who want them to.