, Leader of the Labour
Party, responding to the Prime Minister’s statement to
the House of Commons today on tackling illegal immigration:
Thank you Mr Speaker.
Channel crossings are a serious problem, requiring serious
solutions.
We need leadership at home and abroad. We need a Home Office that
functions effectively. And we need to defeat the criminal gangs
operating on the coast.
But time and time again this Government has refused to treat a
serious problem seriously. And he has sat around the cabinet
table the whole time.
Where there should have been solutions, we have had gimmicks.
Plenty of newspaper headlines about wave machines, prison ships,
and fantasy islands but no actual action.
It’s all designed to mask failure - to distract from a broken
asylum system that can’t process claims, can’t return those with
no right to be here, and can’t protect our borders.
Over 40,000 people have crossed the channel this year. That’s a
record.
But only 2% have had their asylum claim processed. And what
happens to the 98%? They are placed in hotels costing nearly £7
million a day.
Bad for refugees who want to rebuild their life. Bad for
taxpayers.
This isn’t just a one off, it’s been bad under the Tories for
years. Last year the percentage of channel crossing processed was
just 4%. So something has to be done to clear the backlog.
So, I welcome the commitment to fast-track clearly unfounded
claims. This is what Labour has been calling for.
And Britain is two years behind so many of our neighbours and
allies, who have had fast tracking for years.
Can the Prime Minister outline how quickly his new system will
deliver decisions for those who are clearly not entitled to stay
here?
I also welcome more staff for processing. It’s appalling they let
the backlog get this big - nearly 100,000 cases waiting more than
6 months for a decision.
So can he guarantee the backlog will be cleared by the end of the
Parliament?
But processing is only part of the answer.
Who is sending these people to risk their lives?
Criminal gangs who are profiting from putting lives at risk. They
thrive because of a total failure of any coordinated response or
any effective deterrent to their criminal activity.
For months Labour has been calling for action to tackle the root
cause of the problem.
A specialist cell in the National Crime Agency to catch,
prosecute and disband the criminal gangs.
We need to be working internationally to end this cross-border
crime.
New staff are welcome. But can he guarantee that this will result
in prosecutions, for those who put lives and national security at
risk?
Money is still being wasted on the unworkable, unethical plan to
deport people to Rwanda - £140million wasted already, not a
single deportation.
And the most senior civil servant in the Home Office is the only
one in Government willing to tell the truth: it doesn’t even work
as a deterrent.
The gimmicks go on and so do the crossings. We need to bring this
to an end.
That means a proper plan to crack down on the gangs - quick
processing, return agreements, serious solutions to a serious
problem. That’s what Labour will offer.
