PMQs Recap: Yet another week where we know nothing about Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘vision’ for the country
Today the Prime Minister set out the choice very clearly. A plan to stop the boats and break the criminal people smuggling gangs:
- We are delivering on our priority to stop the boats, with small boat arrivals down by a third. The Prime Minister is already delivering on his pledge to stop the boats with the largest ever small boats deal with France; a new agreement with Albania that has cut Albanian small boat arrivals by more than 90 per cent; illegal working raids are up nearly 70 per cent; the asylum legacy backlog is down by half; 50 asylum hotels can now be closed; and we passed the ground-breaking Illegal Migration Act (PMO, Press Release, 5 June 2023, link; BBC News, 12 June 2023, link).
- We introduced the Illegal Migration Act, changing the law so that if people come here illegally they will not be able to claim asylum in the UK. For the first time, our Illegal Migration Act will block asylum based on the mode of entry, meaning the 90 per cent of arrivals who claimed asylum in 2022 would have their claim heard in Rwanda or another safe third country (Home Office, News Story, 7 March 2023, link).
- We forged a treaty with Rwanda and introduced landmark legislation to make clear Rwanda is safe, enabling us to relocate those who make the illegal journeys. We upgraded our agreement to a treaty, addressing the Supreme Court’s concerns, and affirming Rwanda’s safety via emergency legislation, ensuring illegal migrants will be relocated to Rwanda (Home Office, News story, 6 December 2023, link).
Or a Labour Party that wants an amnesty for illegal immigrants and tried desperately to delay or disrupt over a hundred times our plan to stop the boats:
- Labour’s bilateral agreement with Brussels would force Britain to take in 100,000 illegal migrants already in Europe, every single year. Based on the EU’s rules, the UK would need to take a 12.9 per cent mandatory fair share of the EU’s 966,000 applicants, meaning 100,000 illegal migrants (Council of the European Union, Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on asylum and migration management and amending Council Directive (EC) 2003/109 and the proposed Regulation (EU), 13 June 2023, link; ONS, Population Estimates, 21 December 2022, link; EuroStat, News Story, 11 July 2023, link).
- Labour have voted against tougher measures to tackle illegal immigration 140 times and have voted to block, delay or weaken our plan to stop the boats 127 times, frustrating our actions to stop the boats. Labour have consistently voted against tougher measures to tackle illegal immigration, frustrating the passage of our Illegal Migration Bill, Safety of Rwanda Bill and other measures, showing Labour cannot be trusted to tackle illegal migration (Conservative Research Department Analysis of Hansard, 23 April 2024, archived).
- Sir Keir Starmer said he would scrap the Rwanda Plan even if it succeeded in slashing small boat crossings. STUDIO: ‘If…flights to Rwanda begin to take off, and the numbers crossing the Channel on small boats decline, i.e., so it’s working? Would you still reverse it?’ STARMER: ‘Yes, it’s the wrong policy. It’s hugely expensive. It’s a tiny number, a tiny number of individuals who would go to Rwanda, and the real problem is at source’ (BBC, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, 8 October 2023, archived).
- Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party helped to stop the deportation of foreign national criminals who went on re-offend after staying in the UK. Starmer and the Labour Party helped block the deportation of offenders including someone who led police on a high speed chase for selling drugs, later jailed again for carrying a knife, and another man who was jailed for two vile attacks on girls aged 15 and 17 (The Daily Mail, 19 April 2023, link; The Sun, 4 March 2023, link; GB News, 23 March 2023, link; Sutton and Croydon Guardian, 6 July 2019, link).
