Global Migration Challenge

Debate between Priti Patel and Paul Blomfield

Tuesday 19th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I pay tribute to Stoke Council and to all parliamentary colleagues from Stoke-on-Trent who have made representations over a long period of time many, many times with great strength and feeling. The dispersal policy is important. I have touched on it already. It is a complete and utter shame that the nationalists have been howling about this policy, while at the same time only one local authority has actually supported the dispersal policy. In the principle of fairness and a sense of fairness across the country, and to British taxpayers, we must make sure that every local authority participates in the scheme.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

Can I try to get a clear answer to the question that others have asked? The Home Office factsheet on this proposal explains:

“Every person who comes to the UK illegally, or by dangerous or unnecessary methods…will be considered for relocation to Rwanda.”

The Home Secretary seemed to confirm that in her earlier comments. Will she confirm now that women and children who come to the UK through irregular routes fleeing conflict and repression will be eligible for transfer to Rwanda, and not just the adult men, as her Department briefed the media?

[Priti Patel]

I will repeat what I said earlier on. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis and nobody will be removed if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.

Ukraine

Debate between Priti Patel and Paul Blomfield

Tuesday 1st March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. To give some context on Lviv, the take-up in recent weeks has been very low, but with that said, we are doing everything we can. I would like to pay tribute to our ambassador, Melinda Simmons, and the team in Lviv, who are doing outstanding work. It is because of her and her team that we are able to keep these operations up and running—I want to put all this into that particular context. We are relying on very brave people from our home team in-country to help Ukrainian people, and I come back to my point about cases: please send us details and we will work with them to ensure that we can provide the support that is necessary.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

The Home Secretary is right to talk about the unity that we have seen in response to the appalling events in Ukraine. We need that unity in our response to the refugee crisis, and we need our response to reflect the mood of the public, who have seen the deeply moving images of women and children fleeing their country. Last night at a rally in Sheffield, one Ukrainian who is here on a temporary work visa pleaded for the right to bring his sister to the country. Will the Home Secretary confirm that the family reunion scheme that she has announced today will extend to him and others on temporary visas? In relation to others, will she seriously consider the resettlement scheme that has been proposed by the Refugee Council?

[Priti Patel]

We do not rule anything out. I restate to the House that we have been developing this response in conjunction with partners, and the situation is evolving. Again, the hon. Member has a specific case: I ask him please to send it to me and we absolutely will take a look at it.

Channel Crossings in Small Boats

Debate between Priti Patel and Paul Blomfield

Monday 22nd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

Well, I do not think I have much to add. My hon. Friend has absolutely made the case for voting for that Bill and for the reforms that we are bringing in, and the Labour party is behaving like a computer that says no all the time.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

The Home Secretary has this afternoon put the Nationality and Borders Bill at the very centre of her plans, but her Department’s own impact assessment cautioned that

“evidence supporting the effectiveness of this approach is limited”,

and it went on to say that some of its measures

“could encourage these cohorts to attempt riskier means of entering the UK.”

Will she not accept the evidence of her own Department, and abandon plans that seem more designed to provide headlines than a solution?

--- Later in debate ---

[Priti Patel]

Absolutely wrong. That is the wrong characterisation, quite frankly, of the Nationality and Borders Bill and of the new plan for immigration, which has a range of measures, including a one-stop appeal process, the ability for claims to be processed in a different way and heard offshore, and, importantly, the ability to ensure that individuals who are fleeing persecution are given the help and the support they need. I find it absolutely extraordinary that Member after Member on the Opposition Benches stands up and just says, on the one hand, “You’re not doing enough as a Government to stop illegal migration,” while on the other hand in effect saying, “What you are doing is not good enough, and we are voting against it.” I have made it quite clear from the onset not only that this problem will take time to fix—

[Paul Blomfield]

Your Department said—[Interruption.]

[Priti Patel]

If the hon. Member would like to listen to my response, rather than yelling at me—he is not even speaking in a low voice, just yelling at me—there is no silver bullet, and the only solution is whole-scale reform. That whole-scale reform has to address pull factors, it has to ensure that we have safe and legal routes, it has to have a differentiated approach, it has to make sure that we can house people in the right kind of way and it has to ensure that we have the infrastructure in the United Kingdom to support people on resettlement pathways. Currently, our plan and the Bill will deliver that, whereas under the current broken system, which has not been reformed for 20 years, we are not able to deliver our asylum system in a fair way. The various pulls are actually bringing people to the country illegally, and we do need to stop that.

New Plan for Immigration

Debate between Priti Patel and Paul Blomfield

Wednesday 24th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; I thank him for his question. People should claim asylum in the first safe country they arrive in. That is the point that we are making again and again. They are currently in the hands of people traffickers and smugglers, and are, quite frankly, being duped into false promises and false hope. There is no doubt whatever that we will be working with our counterparts—I have already mentioned the G6—to pursue this with greater vigour. The principle that my hon. Friend raises is fundamentally correct.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab) [V]]

This cynical announcement is built on the availability of safe and legal routes. This morning, the Home Secretary claimed, “We have safe and legal routes, and we have a programme called the Syrian refugee resettlement scheme”. But she will know that the Syrian vulnerable persons resettlement scheme actually finished at the end of February, as its quota was filled. There are no details of how the new UK resettlement scheme will work, so could the Home Secretary tell us how many people it will take, explain how it will operate and outline, for example, the process available to a refugee from what is currently the world’s worst conflict, in Yemen?

[Priti Patel]

I will not take any lectures from hon. Gentleman about resettlement schemes, when this Government have successfully resettled 25,000 people through that resettlement scheme—[Interruption.] He shakes his head, but it is true. I have made it quite clear that we are in discussion with partner agencies already. That work is under way. He can shake his head and be as dismissive as he chooses to be, but if he bothered to read the new immigration plan, he would see the details of exactly how we will start to introduce new safe and legal routes through legislation.

Windrush Compensation Scheme

Debate between Priti Patel and Paul Blomfield

Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

This compensation scheme is not comparable with any other type of compensation scheme that has been constructed by Government. I have explained already to the House how the scheme came about and what type of consultation was involved; obviously, members of the community were part of that. That was all led by Martin Forde QC. My focus is to ensure that this scheme works and that money goes to people. It is complex—that has been the basis of our discussion this afternoon—but fundamentally, we need to make sure that it is done case by case, that people are treated in the right way and that their particular circumstances are reflected in the final compensation that they receive.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I am pleased that the Home Secretary accepts Wendy Williams’s call for “major cultural change” in the Home Office. One of the things that needs to change is the over-dependence on immigration detention, which many Windrush victims experienced. It has been too easy to detain, and for too long. Will the Home Secretary update the House on the Department’s work on community-based alternatives to detention? Does she agree that ending indefinite detention, for which there is support on both sides of the House, would contribute significantly to that cultural change in the Home Office?

[Priti Patel]

The hon. Gentleman makes a thoughtful comment about community-based detention and detention as a whole. Detention is there for a reason. Obviously, other discussions and debates have taken place around this, but importantly when it comes to the Windrush lessons learned review, the way in which people were treated and, through the Home Office and immigration enforcement, put in detention was completely wrong. We have to make sure that that does not happen again and that we do not have cases like that again. Clearly, that is part of the wider work with the lessons learned review.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Priti Patel and Paul Blomfield

Wednesday 29th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend has raised this issue with me previously. On support for family planning around the world in light of America’s policies, I am delighted to confirm that we are hosting a conference in July this year, working alongside Bill Gates, the private sector and others, to continue to demonstrate UK leadership on this issue while challenging others to step up.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

T4. I recently met Youth Stop AIDS campaigners from my constituency who are optimistic about the Government’s international family planning summit in July, but they are concerned to ensure that HIV is an integral part of the conference. Will the Secretary of State assure me that an HIV organisation will be included in the civil society steering group that is being set up to advise on planning for the summit?

[Priti Patel]

The hon. Gentleman raises a really important point about the summit, HIV/AIDS and representation from civil society. I can give him a complete assurance that we are not only engaging but working with civil society organisations. Their voices will be at the heart of our further policy work and development.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Priti Patel and Paul Blomfield

Monday 2nd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

T2. According to the Office for National Statistics, nearly one in four jobs in my city of Sheffield pays less than the real living wage. On the day that the living wage is being increased to £8.25 an hour, will the Secretary of State congratulate the Living Wage Foundation on its work and outline what he will do to ensure that more people are paid the real living wage, which is now over £1 an hour more than the Government’s bogus national living wage?

[The Minister for Employment (Priti Patel)]

This Government are very clear that it is through our welfare policies that we are ensuring that work pays. As the hon. Gentleman heard me say earlier, we are introducing a national living wage next April which will ensure that work always pays and that people in the country are given a pay rise.