Greg Smith
Main Page: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)Department Debates - View all Greg Smith's debates with the Home Office
(3 days, 4 hours ago)
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Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Shabana Mahmood)
Small boat returns under this Government are at a record high, and our Immigration and Asylum Bill will help us to remove people faster than ever before. This Government are dealing with the small boats crisis left by the previous Government. Small boat crossings are down, and removals are at record highs.
Greg Smith
If small boat crossings were down by enough, the Government would not have to stand up asylum camps at places such as Ministry of Defence Bicester site A, which is just over the Oxfordshire border from my constituency. With 85,000 small boat crossings since the general election, the situation is at crisis point. MOD Bicester site A does not even offer value to the taxpayer; new modelling shows that over three years, the cost would come in at £385 per person per night—nearly double that of the equivalent asylum hotels. Will the Home Secretary actually get on and deport those who have come to our country illegally, rather than using sites like MOD Bicester site A?
Shabana Mahmood
Under this Government, small boat returns have increased. This is a crisis that began on the Conservative Government’s watch and got worse under the Conservative party; this Government are fixing the mess that they left behind.