English Channel Small Boats Incident

Duncan Baker Excerpts

Thursday 25th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

And finally, the price for patience and perseverance goes to Duncan Baker.

[Duncan Baker (North Norfolk) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. That will teach me to be last in.

The situation yesterday was an absolute tragedy, but the Home Secretary has made it absolutely clear that there is no single silver bullet to fix the problem. Does she agree that there are, broadly, three huge areas to cover? The first is international co-operation, which has to be there if we are to work with other countries. Secondly, domestic legislation has to be put in place, which is what we are doing through the Nationality and Borders Bill, to fix our borders and the broken asylum system. Lastly, we need the toughest possible measures and surveillance to crack down on the criminality of those gangs that are aiding and abetting the situation every day.

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I thank him for his comments. He has summed up the totality of the challenge that confronts us all. It has existed for a long time, and that is exactly why we are attempting to fix the broken system by tackling the issue of the gangs at source, by going upstream, by using intelligence, by fixing the system here in the United Kingdom and of course by our continued work with our counterparts around the world.