Romanian and Bulgarian Accession

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I note my hon. Friend’s robust remarks, which are no less than I would have expected from him on this issue. I understand people’s concern about it—and, indeed, about immigration generally—but I think that their concern is largely a response to what they saw happening under the last Government. We are taking a number of steps to deal with that, not just in terms of what will happen after the end of the transitional controls but in the Immigration Bill, which is currently going through Parliament. It is this Government who are introducing changes that I believe are absolutely fair to hard-working people in this country.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Surely the fact that new Labour got it spectacularly wrong on European immigration—as some of us argued at the time—does not entitle the Government to make the same mistake. Am I not right in thinking that by the end of the first week in January, every citizen of Romania, every citizen of Bulgaria, and everyone else who has managed to get Romanian and Bulgarian passports will be able to enter the United Kingdom without hindrance?

[Mrs May]

The hon. Gentleman said that mistakes had been made by the last Government. He also referred to new Labour; I am not sure whether that is something different from the Labour party that he now represents. He claimed that this Government were not learning from those mistakes, but we have indeed learnt from them. That is why we have been clear about transitional controls, and why we want to renegotiate the treaty and ensure that free movement is part of that renegotiation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Monday 15th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. The Government have been clear: we have rooted out abuse and removed the ability of hundreds of colleges to bring in international students. However, we welcome genuine students to Britain and to our excellent universities. We made it clear in the mid-term review that there is no cap, and we welcome the brightest and best, wherever they come from in the world, to come and study in the United Kingdom.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Minister accept that the net migration figure can be manipulated by making Britain so unattractive that people wish to leave? Surely the figure that should be looked at is the one for gross immigration, and surely that cannot be controlled until we stop the free movement of people from the European Union.

[Mr Harper]

I make three points to the hon. Gentleman. First, as I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Gordon Henderson), the immigration figure—the gross number—is down by 100,000 to its lowest level since 2003. My second point concerns people in the United Kingdom who have no right to be here. I actually want them to leave, which will contribute to reducing net migration. Thirdly, on the in-flow of people from the EU, as he will see from the numbers, the EU is not where the bulk of net migration comes from; the majority of people coming to Britain come from outside the EU.

2014 JHA Opt-out Decision

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Monday 15th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I can confirm to my hon. Friend that the mandate we are seeking tonight will indeed lead to the UK exercising its opt-out.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Mr Jenkin]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs May]

The decision on the form that that vote will take has not yet been made, but I am well aware of the views of some Members on that matter.

I said in my statement last week:

“Following our discussions in Europe, another vote will be held on the final list of measures that the UK will formally apply to rejoin.”—[Official Report, 9 July 2013; Vol. 566, c. 177.]

But, to make this commitment absolutely crystal clear, and to reassure hon. Members who were worried about the role of the Committees in scrutinising the Government’s plans to rejoin the selected measures, we have listened to the points that were raised—I was grateful to the Chairmen of the European Scrutiny Committee and the Home Affairs Select Committee for the conversations that I had with them; the Chairman of the Justice Committee was indeed abroad—and we have tabled a new motion for today’s debate. That new motion explicitly invites the European Scrutiny Committee and the Home Affairs and Justice Committees to submit reports before the end of October, in advance of the Government opening formal discussions with the European Commission and other member states. I therefore hope the new motion will receive wide support from hon. Members across the House.

[Mr Davidson]

I am grateful to the Home Secretary for giving way to a Scottish Member. To clarify, if reports are being produced for the Committees, will those Committees be asked to produce individual responses? If they produce individual responses, does it not make sense to have individual votes on particular items, rather than simply taking them in a lump?

[Mrs May]

It is not for me to suggest to the Scrutiny Committee or the Select Committees how they may wish to report on this matter; it will be entirely up to the membership of those Committees what reports they choose to bring to the House.

Treaty on the Functioning of the EU

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Tuesday 9th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, because he enables me to answer the earlier question from my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr Chope) on the balance of competences work. We absolutely have the opportunity to take this decision on the pre-Lisbon justice and home affairs measures, but of course that is separate from the wider negotiation that the Conservative party is guaranteeing to undertake leading up to the in/out referendum, on which many Government Members voted after last Friday’s debate on the private Member’s Bill. A further negotiation will look at the wider issues, based on the balance of competences work currently being undertaken.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I very much welcome the Government’s decision to opt out en masse and then decide item by item on whether to opt back in, which I see as a rejection of ever closer union, but how will we deal with the matters post negotiation? If there are 35 items that the Government propose to opt back into, will we vote item by item, because the Government might well succeed in their objectives in some of them but not in others? Rather than simply having a vote on a lump, would it not be much better to give us individual choices, and would that not also strengthen the Home Secretary’s position?

[Mrs May]

The decision on the form that any further vote will take in relation to these matters post negotiation is yet to be taken by the relevant House authorities and business managers. I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s opening remarks. Perhaps he might like to try to persuade his Front Benchers to be as clear in their position on the opt-out.

Abu Qatada

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Wednesday 24th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

This farce makes the Government look incompetent as well as impotent. Can the Home Secretary tell me whether previously loyal Conservatives will have to vote for the UK Independence party before she pays attention to them?

[Mrs May]

I am really not sure what relevance that has to the signing of a mutual legal assistance agreement with the Jordanian Government. Over the last three years, the Government have taken every step at every stage to ensure that we reach the end point we all want, which is the deportation of Abu Qatada.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Monday 9th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, which we are working on. Where sentence length allows, consideration of deportation is now started up to 18 months before the earliest point of removal. As a result, we are removing a significant number of prisoners much earlier in the process. About a third of foreign national offenders removed in 2011 were removed before the end of their sentence, which is up from just under 20% in 2008.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Do the figures for removal in these circumstances differ between the different nations and regions of the United Kingdom, and if so, why?

[Damian Green]

There are not significant differences because these people are, by definition, foreign national offenders, so they do not come from any of the regions of the United Kingdom. Broadly speaking, how efficient we are relates to whether we have a concentration of foreign national prisoners in a prison where UK Border Agency officers can get at them early enough to make sure that all the schemes operate as efficiently as possible.

Abu Qatada

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

As I have said, the Government have set up a process in relation to the Bill of Rights. I also gently remind my right hon. and hon. Friends that people in the United Kingdom had access to the European Court of Human Rights before the Human Rights Act; the situation is simply that the relationship has changed.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Are this Government funding this man’s interminable appeals by providing unlimited legal aid?

[Mrs May]

No, we have been very clear about the issue of the availability of finance for Abu Qatada, and I assure the hon. Gentleman that some of the claims being made about the finances that are being made available to Abu Qatada are not correct.

Controlling Migration

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I think it is important for people who come to live here in the United Kingdom to be able to participate in society. That is why next week we are introducing an English language test for those who wish to come here to join a spousal partner. I think it only sensible for someone who is coming to live here to be able to speak English, and thence to participate in society.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I welcome the statement in general terms, but I do not believe that it goes far enough. There is still uncontrolled migration from the European Union, certainly to my constituency, into which have come a substantial number of unskilled and semi-skilled European workers who are undercutting the unemployed work force. What steps will the Home Secretary take to ensure that some curbs are placed on those people?

[Mrs May]

I hear what the hon. Gentleman says. He has a record of having taken a rather different view from the Front Bench Members of his party when it was in government. As I have made clear and as the figures show, the vast majority of net migration is from outside the European Union. The flows into and out of the country of British and EU citizens balance out, and have done so for the past few years. As for the future, the Government have made it absolutely clear that if there are any new member states, we will exercise transitional controls.

Limits on Non-EU Economic Migration

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Monday 28th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and that is something on which we will also focus. The general public are right to expect that if someone is here without the right to be here, the Government take steps to ensure that they are removed.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I welcome both the statement and the direction of travel? I also welcome the direction of travel from those on my own Front Bench. Indeed, had we been clearer about our direction of travel, we might not be sitting on these Benches today.

I am, however, disappointed on two counts. First, the Home Secretary said nothing that she did not say to Radio Scotland this morning. I was not aware that it was the practice to make announcements to Radio Scotland first thing in the morning before coming to the House—[Interruption.] I never did that. Secondly, why does the statement address only non-EU immigration? Why do the Government not seek to repatriate powers over EU immigration? Would the Government not consider saying to their European neighbours that there will be no new accession until powers over immigration have been repatriated?

[Mrs May]

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman needs to listen a little more carefully to BBC Radio Scotland in the mornings, because I did not speak on it this morning, although my hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration did. I am not aware that I sound like him—

Points of Order

Ian Davidson Excerpts

Monday 28th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Whether that response satisfies the hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Glenda Jackson) I cannot be sure, but it will have to do for now.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Would it be in order for me to apologise to the Home Secretary and the Minister for Immigration for confusing the two of them this morning? Could I also point out that, in my defence, they were on the radio and all these posh Tories sound the same, and that the Home Secretary did not, however, deal with the point that the announcement was made by the Minister for Immigration this morning before it was brought to this House?

[Mr Speaker]

In almost all circumstances it is in order to apologise, but if that is the hon. Gentleman’s idea of an apology, I am not sure that I ever want one from him.