Small Boat Crossings Debate

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Department: Home Office

Small Boat Crossings

Ashley Fox Excerpts
Wednesday 6th November 2024

(2 days, 3 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.

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Angela Eagle Portrait Dame Angela Eagle
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That is certainly the balance that this Government are aiming to achieve.

Ashley Fox Portrait Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)
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The Minister has said that her policy to smash the criminal gangs will reduce the number of migrants crossing the channel. Can she give the House her estimation of when that policy will start to work?

Angela Eagle Portrait Dame Angela Eagle
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I said in an earlier answer that there are no magic wands in this area. Tough operational processing and international co-operation will begin to bear down on this, and work by the National Crime Agency and by prosecutorial authorities, often cross-border in different jurisdictions. The fact that we have made such a good start with international co-operation and the significant shift in attention here will bear down on this, but I will not stand at this Dispatch Box and pretend that there is an easy timeframe or answer for when that will have the effect that we all want it to have. We will bear down on it and we will make progress.