Oral Answers to Questions

James MacCleary Excerpts

Monday 5th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Alex Norris)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his work in this area and to the Select Committee for its work and its recent visit. My experience of working with France is that it wants to solve the shared challenge. There is no silver bullet, but my hon. Friend has mentioned ways in which it can be solved. That is why we have the “one in, one out” pilot, as well as our ordinary day-to-day intelligence co-operation. We want to do more with our neighbours and solve this problem together.

[James MacCleary (Lewes) (LD)]

T7. Further to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson), does the Home Secretary not appreciate how worrying it is to hear about the numbers of young people leaving this country? These people are literally the future of this country. What measures is her Department taking to disincentivise young people from emigrating? Does she agree that a youth mobility scheme with the European Union that allowed young people to work in Europe without needing to take the drastic step of leaving altogether would help?

[Shabana Mahmood]

I repeat that the numbers have stayed relatively flat. I think that the hon. Member is imputing a motive to those individuals that has not yet been stood up by any of the data or the evidence. He will know that we are pursuing discussions in relation to a youth mobility scheme with our partners in Europe.