Contributions
267 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)There are few things in life and in human nature more powerful than the desire to be with those we love. To be separated from a husband or wife by a national border is no small…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)I think and hope that it has been clear from everything I have said that I make no defence of the previous Government’s activity. It is incredibly important that Conservative…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)As I have set out already, there was never what we are talking about here, which is a formal cap set by Parliament in legislation. However, a number of aims and promises were…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)As the hon. Gentleman can read in the new clause, the wording does not state that the caps have to be set and cannot be revised; it is more than possible to come back to…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)The hon. Member asks a good question. I am not sure whether that would be explicitly decided on the face of the Bill; that could be something that the Home Office decided…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)New clause 36 would give access to asylum accommodation centres to our immigration enforcement officers. Members of the public may be surprised to learn that this power does not…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)Might the Minister, for clarity, lay out what the Government consider the purpose of the Bill to be and, by implication, what its purpose is not?18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)We have spoken many times today, and over the course of this Bill Committee’s proceedings, about the fundamental principles of fairness upon which we believe that our immigration…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)I welcome the Minister’s response. Might she please commit today to a date by which the Home Office at least aims for all migrant hotels to be closed, as per her party’s manifesto…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)Again, rightly and reasonably, the Minister talks about lowering costs, but might she say a few words about fairness and the principle that this new clause seeks to speak to:…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)I am a little confused by the Minister’s stating that several of our amendments should not be debated with this Bill. I fully concede that she is more experienced than I am, but…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)In that case, I am happy to reassure him that I wrote every word. The short answer to the question about Albania is yes. We think that would be completely appropriate. Why would…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)He is nodding. Part of what we are trying to say by extending the time is that we feel that a person’s commitment to the UK before they apply for settlement should be longer than…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)I totally take the hon. Gentleman’s point, but I think he is answering a slightly different point. What we are saying is that the combination of the extension of time and the…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)On 23 January 2023, Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai was sentenced to life imprisonment at Salisbury Crown court. Nearly a year earlier, Abdulrahimzai had murdered 21-year-old Thomas…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)I will come on to precision and the ways of determining age slightly later in my remarks. Ahmed Hassan, an Iraqi asylum seeker, claimed to be a 16-year-old when he arrived in the…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Eleventh sitting)It was a privilege to hear about Thomas Roberts’s life. The hon. Member for Bournemouth East did himself great credit in telling us about him so movingly. Thomas’s mother,…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)The Minister says that foreign criminals should be deported whenever it is legal to do so, but the purpose of our amendment is to make it always legal to do so. Why does she not…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)We have spoken already about indefinite leave to remain, which is also referred to as settlement. We have discussed the most basic requirement for eligibility, which is time, and…18 Mar 2025HANSARDBorder Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Twelfth sitting)I will make a little progress. The concept of universal rights is clearly a good one. It is one of the great gifts to humanity of the Judeo-Christian tradition to recognise that…18 Mar 2025