The Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962 was the first major reform to Britain’s immigration legislation since the British Nationality Act of 1948. The Act of 1962 restricted migration of Commonwealth citizens and was targeted at controlling and restricting non-white immigration upon pressure from members of the Conservative Party.

Shadow Home Secretary, Gordon Walker, in a Common’s debate about the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill’s argued,

“Conservatives pride themselves on being the party of the Commonwealth. I am beginning to think that they and the Ministers on the Front Bench do not know the first thing about the Commonwealth today.

One thing which I never forgot when I had some part in dealing with this matter was that, although relationships between people of the white race and other races is a world-wide problem, it is, in a special sense, a peculiar Commonwealth problem. European imperialism imposed a long period of domination by whites over peoples of other colours. Consequently, the struggle for independence imparted a special intensity to the relationships of coloured and white people and conflicts between them, which did not attach to other sorts of racial conflict, to other acts of oppression or other acts of intolerance.

The transformation of the Empire into the Commonwealth meant that this special problem was carried over into the Commonwealth, because the essence of the Commonwealth was that we did not terminate our relations with these Colonies but translated them into a continuing relationship between Asian, African and European nations. We must therefore accept—we may sometimes think it not logical—that for some time to come a special tension in relationships between white people and people of other colours will be an integral part of Commonwealth relations.

That is why South Africa presented a special, unique problem for the Commonwealth, which went to the root of the nature of the Commonwealth. That is why this Bill goes to the root of the nature of the Commonwealth. That is why it has produced heart-felt, genuine and deeply-felt alarm in many parts of the Commonwealth. There have already been reactions to it, the strongest in the West Indies. Hon. Members on both sides of the House who know the West Indies knew that this would happen. It has happened. Objection has been voiced by Sir Grantley Adams, a man who I have always found to be one of the wisest and ablest leaders in the Commonwealth and deeply attached to the Commonwealth. His words cannot be ignored by anyone who really has the interests of the Commonwealth at heart.

India has let it be known that, if the Bill is passed, it will consider introducing equal retaliatory measures. There has been much talk about the lack of reciprocity. I do not like bars to movement anywhere in the Commonwealth. In India there is complete reciprocity. A Briton can go to India as easily as an Indian can come here. He can go there, stay there and work there. There are more Britons in India today than there were before she achieved her independence. Imagine all this being stopped, with vouchers and all sorts of restrictions. The Bill will have a very grave effect on our trade, on our exports, because our people in India are primarily there for trade.

It would appear from the timing of the Bill, from the Commonwealth point of view, almost as if the Government have picked the worst possible moment to introduce it. We are at a critical stage in bringing non-racial states in East and Central Africa to independence and self-government. Everything there turns on the tolerance of an African majority for a white minority. To pick this moment to introduce a racially discriminatory Bill into our Commonwealth relations is the height of stupidity. We are at a critical stage in the future of the West Indian Federation. This is also the time when the Common Market, whatever one may think of its merits, has unquestionably introduced doubt and suspicion among the member states of the Commonwealth. To introduce this Bill at this time is really appalling.

The Home Secretary made a lot of this being a temporary Bill. But it lasts for five years and can be renewed by order. It is nothing like the Aliens Act, which we discuss year by year and which we discussed last night. It will be intolerable if this House has greater control over and greater influence in regard to restrictions on the entry of aliens than in regard to restrictions on the entry of Commonwealth citizens. The hon. and learned Gentleman the Minister of State, Home Office, was good enough to say yesterday that the debate that we have year by year has a great effect on administration and that it brings about a great improvement in individual cases and in general policy. But we shall not be able to do that with regard to Commonwealth citizens. This must be an annual Bill so that we can discuss and watch it year by year under the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill. Parliament cannot delegate to Ministers so much power and so much discretion over a matter which concerns the Commonwealth and Commonwealth citizens.

The heart of our Amendment is that the Government are approaching the wrong problem in the wrong way. Of course, there is a real problem, a problem of social relations, housing, and overcrowding, which produces racial tension. Hon. Members who represent the affected areas—I am in one of them—know that there is deep and genuine feeling on this matter. We have all been told by constituents, “If you had to live in the conditions in which we live your mind might well be changed”. I have always thought that there was force in this argument. It is easy to be high-minded from a distance. But Members of Parliament have duties. They have a duty to consider this question in the wider perspective of the Commonwealth and the Common Market. In addition, they have a duty to try to get at what is the real problem and the remedies for it.

There are two causes of the real problem. One is what I might call the clotting of the immigrant population, its gathering together in smallish areas of poor housing and high unemployment. The latest figures which I have been able to obtain show that 40 per cent. of the coloured immigrants in this country live in London, 30 per cent. in the West Midlands and 3 per cent. in Scotland. The position is worse than the figures show, because the immigrants are concentrated in small areas within larger conurbations like London and the West Midlands.

The second cause of the problem is that, in these areas of clotting population, the creation of new jobs by the expanding economy is outrunning the provision of houses. This is the simple cause, and the results, of course, are appalling. They affect everybody, and not just the coloured immigrants, who live in these places. The thought that in 1961 homelessness should be increasing day by day and week by week in London is appalling, and it is a manifestation of the same basic problem that we have to face concerning the clotting of the immigrant population.

The Government are to blame for this situation. The Government have totally failed to relate the increase in the number of jobs to housing. They have totally failed to disperse industry. They have contributed to homelessness and overcrowding by their Rent Act and by cutting back local authority house building.

We must get the problem in perspective. It is a very grave problem, but it occurs only in relatively small areas and the Bill is quite irrelevant to the problem; it will do nothing whatever to remedy it. Immigration will go on under it. If we do nothing else but just have this Bill the problem will get steadily worse. I believe that one motive of the Bill is not to achieve very much but to divert anger in the cities from the Government and its policies.

A real drive now to start local authority building again and to disperse industry would have a relatively quick effect on this problem and much of the present tension might go rather quickly. There have been other waves of rapid immigration in our time. When I was young in politics, there was a great emigration from Wales. I remember that in Oxford all the things that are said now about immigrants were said about the Welsh. That problem has disappeared, partly through time and partly because great housing estates have been built which have totally changed living conditions.

In this respect, there is a point which is constantly overlooked. It is that we cannot build the houses or the roads that we need to get this dispersal, this acceptance of the immigrant population, without immigrant labour. It cannot be done.

We do not take any negative view in opposing the Bill. We think that there is a problem and that it should be dealt with. The Government must make much greater efforts to disperse this population. They must support local authorities much more in using their anti-overcrowding powers. They must take active measures to combat the colour bar. This is necessary now in our country because there are some elements that are stirring up race hatred. We should consider legislation to punish deliberate incitement of race hatred. We must certainly have legislation to stop the practice of the colour bar in places to which the public has access.

The Government must use their full influence. It is no good the Home Secretary praising the bodies who have helped. What have the Government done to help them? A great deal can be done to help the committees set up by local authorities and others. They need welfare officers and interpreters. We all know that where there is bad behaviour by immigrants, if somebody of their own race and colour goes to them with the authority of being a welfare officer, it is nearly always put right and relations improve immensely.

We bitterly oppose the Bill and will resist it. It has been rushed. There has been no inquiry, no consultation with the Commonwealth. It is widely and rightly regarded as introducing a colour bar into our legislation. It will do great harm to the Commonwealth. It is so ill-conceived that it will not achieve even its own mis-begotten purposes. It is a Bill, as the Economist said, that is a ramshackle monstrosity.”

Source: Hansard HC Deb. vol. 649, col. 712-717, 16 Nov 1961