Salisbury Incident 2018: Update

John Howell Excerpts

Tuesday 21st September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

I thank the right hon. Lady for her questions and remarks. She is right to point to the whole area of the tier 1 investor visa route, which, historically, as the whole House is well aware, has led to a range of the wider issues we have just been speaking about—investments, illicit finance, corruption and a lack of transparency. The purpose of the review was to look at exactly that. I cannot provide the full update right now, but I want to reassure the House and to let it know that the whole of government is acutely aware of how these routes have previously been used. I would go as far as to say they have been abused for malign purposes—for entry into the UK to do us harm and to harm our country. That is why we will never rule out changes, which we constantly make to our immigration system and to our visas.

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

I hope that my right hon. Friend will accept my congratulations on her mentioning the ECHR judgment on the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, after which many of us thought such events would never occur again. Will she welcome the calls I have made this morning, as the leader of the UK delegation to the Council of Europe, for an urgent debate on this issue next week at the full meeting of the Council of Europe, both to gain support for our move against Russia and to make sure we can address the Russians face to face, to show them down?

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is correct in the case he is making. There has to be a fair degree of openness, honesty and transparency on the acts that have taken place; lives have been lost and today’s ruling is significant, so he is absolutely right in the way in which he has been making the case, and I hope he achieves the outcome he is seeking.