All 1 Debates between Angela Eagle and Carla Denyer

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Angela Eagle and Carla Denyer
Monday 29th July 2024

(3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Carla Denyer Portrait Carla Denyer (Bristol Central) (Green)
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

6. What steps she is taking to help prevent asylum seekers from becoming destitute.

Angela Eagle Portrait The Minister of State, Home Department (Dame Angela Eagle)
- View Speech - Hansard - -

The last Government lost control of the asylum system, which has meant sky-high asylum accommodation costs but also too many cases in which people have fallen through the net and ended up destitute. That has added to the already heavy burden that local authorities have to deal with. This Government will get a grip. We have already set out plans to process asylum claims that have been stuck in record high backlogs, and have given assurances to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government that we will take action to reset the relationship between the Home Office and local authorities.

Carla Denyer Portrait Carla Denyer
- View Speech - Hansard - - - Excerpts

No recourse to public funds is a policy that prevents most migrants in the UK from accessing most forms of welfare support. I would like to see the policy scrapped altogether to reduce child poverty and homelessness, but, at the very least, will the Minister stop applying it to the visas of any parents of children under 18 to ensure that children can be adequately protected against poverty and destitution?

Angela Eagle Portrait Dame Angela Eagle
- View Speech - Hansard - -

No, the best way to deal with the issue of destitution, in my view, is to decide asylum claims quickly and accurately so that those who are entitled to work can do so and can have such recourse, and those who are not can be swiftly removed.