My hon. Friend has taken the words right out of my mouth. I was about to say that the right to rent is the perfect example of that.
The Residential Landlords Association has made it clear that its landlords are worried that fear of committing a criminal offence, by inadvertently renting to the wrong person, will lead to them behaving in a racist manner, because they will simply not take on as a tenant anyone about whom they have doubts—because they are not white, because their surname is not British sounding or because they do not have a passport. They will not take the risk. Making it harder for those people to get accommodation will put some of them in danger. They might have no choice about where they lay their head at night and, in some circumstances, with whom, or they could end up on the street. I do not want that for people who have the right to live here; nor do I want it for people who do not have that right. I do not want it for anyone.
If the Government were to write the script for a film, it would be a black and white one, in more ways than one. It would be very straightforward. In their mind, if someone is refused asylum and we squeeze the life out of them by forcing them on to the street and starving them, they will simply stroll up to UK Visas and Immigration one day and say, “Okay, I give in. You win. Send me home.” We never get to know what happens to them, but here in Britain, we all live happily ever after.
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All the evidence tells us that is not what happens. I will tell the House why. For many asylum seekers, there is no choice. Sleeping on the street in rainy, freezing-cold Britain, going hungry day after day and knowing they are despised by many of the people who pass them by is preferable to returning somewhere where they face all that and are in danger of being raped or even murdered. That is what the evidence tells us. That is what those who work with destitute asylum seekers tell us. That is what asylum seekers themselves tell us. There is one hour to go for those on the parliamentary estate who are watching this debate on television to go to Committee Room 14, where they will find Sanctuary, a fantastic organisation, with dozens of asylum seekers who will tell them that face to face.