Contributions
1,438 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsYes, my hon. Friend’s constituents can be assured that a great deal of work is going on and more resources are being applied. A lot more intelligence is being gathered, much of…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsI said earlier that safe routes would not stop all the channel crossings. There is now an industrialised system run by organised immigration criminals. The Vietnamese would never…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsFor too long, smuggling gangs have been undermining our border security and putting lives at risk, which is why the new Government have made it a top priority to address the…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsI could not have put it better myself.06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsI welcome the right hon. Gentleman —the shadow Home Secretary—to his new Front-Bench position. What a pleasure it is to be opposite him; I am going to look forward to jousting…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsYes.06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsThe way to deter the small boat crossings is to deal with those who are organising and profiting from that immoral trade. That is what we are doing.06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsMy hon. Friend makes an intriguing point, given that Conservative Members have said repeatedly that they were about to start the Rwanda scheme the week after the election, and…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsThat is certainly the balance that this Government are aiming to achieve.06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsNo. We have just had a Budget, which we are in the middle of debating and will be voting on, and I expect that that will be the way we go forwards.06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsYes, it is advisable to try to deal with the immediate causes of the problem—organised immigration criminality—as well as bearing down on the longer-term causes, which often are…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsYes, and the repurposing of some of that money and resource that has not been lost is funding the new approach.06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsI do not believe that safe routes would stop people from attempting to come over the channel in small boats. I have some sympathy with the idea of safe routes, but I do not think…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsYes, I agree. The loss of life in the channel this year has been the highest on record, and that is because more pressure is being put on the gangs, the boats are being overloaded…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsI agree that the first six months of this year were the worst on record. There were then a quiet three months, and now there has been a huge increase, not least because of benign…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsWell, getting to that level of withdrawal would be a fantastic development that would put incredible pressure on many of the supply lines currently being used; if we could get to…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsWe are ensuring that the enforcement part of the Home Office that deals with returns is given the resources it needs to do that job, but to make it even more successful, we have…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsThose countries are not considering a Rwanda scheme; they are all saying that they will stay within the confines of international law. The Rwanda scheme definitely tore up…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsYes, but let us not underestimate the fact that under the Illegal Migration Act 2023 nobody who arrived in that way could be processed, so 118,000 people are waiting to be…06 Nov 2024HANSARDSmall Boat CrossingsI am not going to get into a competition with the hon. Gentleman about compassion. We have a duty to ensure that asylum seekers who come to our shores are properly processed and…06 Nov 2024