King’s Speech

Lord Marlesford Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marlesford (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the change of government. There is much evidence that an eight to 10-year period in power is the maximum before “time for a change”, that clarion call of democracy, echoes in the polling booths. We now have the opportunity of reducing the toxic divisiveness that threatens coherence on a global scale; the US and France are two current sad examples in the West.

More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman poet Horace advocated the golden mean as the route to avoid both the squalor of poverty and the arrogance of wealth. We have a Labour Government who have, as did the Blair Government, discarded the dogma of the hard left. I hope we have a Conservative Party that will unite under the middle way of Harold Macmillan, within the frame of Disraeli’s one nation.

I will focus on one problem that is a threat to our national cohesion: uncontrolled migration. Basic economics suggests that those living a life of poverty or deprivation in their own country will seek to migrate to third countries where the standard of living is substantially higher. The UK, of course, is such a country. These are economic migrants. Then there is the different category of refugees, who should of course be allowed the sanctuary they need—for example, the Christian community in Pakistan.

The Government have inherited a backlog of more than 80,000 migrants who have arrived since June 2022. It is obvious that economic migrants will pose as refugees. Distinguishing between them has proved quite beyond the Home Office, which sadly has not only proved incompetent but been demonstrated to be substantially corrupt in its immigration and borderland force, with more than 50 officials sent to prison for misconduct in public office. I therefore congratulate the Government on creating a fresh start with the new border security command. The commander of that group must be given a free hand as to who he chooses to hire.

All those arriving will at once create additional demand on the services of the host country, in the first instance on housing, health and education. Whether the demand can be met without impacting the availability of these services to the population of the host country will depend on the scale and functioning of migration. The incentive to migrate will not diminish until the living standards of the host country have been diluted to a level that no longer justifies to migrants the costs, hassle and risks of the journey. Obviously, in a democracy, long before that point is reached the electorate will refuse to tolerate the process. That is one of the reasons we now have a new Government. One obvious example as an indicator is the National Health Service, in which there is a great pressure for GPs being provided for new migration.

Some argue that our national wealth is the product of centuries of colonial exploitation, so we neither deserve nor are entitled to it. That is the line being orchestrated by Putin’s fascist regime in Russia, which is using sophisticated and ruthless diplomacy, coupled with the even more ruthless paramilitary Wagner operation, to convert the BRICS group into an aggressive anti-western movement. This year BRICS recruited four new nations; it now covers 30% of the world’s surface and 45% of the population.