Immigration Procedures

Lord Lilley Excerpts

Thursday 14th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bull (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Roberts, for securing this debate and for generously framing it in a way that allows the concerns of many sectors to be raised. Addressing the noble Lord’s question squarely is a bit of a challenge, as it would require general agreement on what exactly is wrong at the moment—this we do not have. The Prime Minister continues to assert that taking back control of our borders is the will of the people, while polls show that public concerns about immigration are the lowest they have been for 16 years.

Be that as it may, we now have a White Paper, which confirms, as anticipated, that the current dual-entry system—

[Lord Lilley (Con)]

Surely the reason concern is lower than before is that people believe that we have taken back control and that henceforth we will have proper controls on immigration. That is the only explanation.