Labour: Immigration bill could lead to 'widespread discrimination' for tenants with 'foreign names'

Government plans to force landlords to carry out extra checks on tenants could lead to "widespread discrimination" and "everyday racism", the Labour Party has warned.

The Immigration Bill - set to be debated in the House of Commons on Tuesday - wants to make renting out accommodation to illegal immigrants a criminal offence.

Writing in the Independent on Sunday, shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said the bill runs the risk of making the UK's housing market a "hostile environment for tenants with foreign sounding names.

Mr Burnham called the plans "disproportionate, divisive, deceitful".

It includes the Right to Rent scheme, which was trialled in the West Midlands last year and requires landlords to check the immigration status of prospective tenants, such as seeing their visa or passport.

According to the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, more than 40% of landlords who took part in the pilot said the scheme had made them less likely to rent a property to someone who did not have a British passport, while more than a quarter said they were reluctant to engage with people with foreign names or accents.

Mr Burnham said the Bill "seeks to propagate immigration myths rather than slay them".

He said:

Mr Burnham also claimed the plan contradicts Prime Minister David Cameron's recent speech at the Conservative Party conference, in which he highlighted the problems young people from black or Asian backgrounds looking for work face by repeatedly having their CVs rejected.

He said: "If he truly believes what he was saying, why on earth is he about to legislate to make the same everyday racism far more likely to happen in the housing market?"