Immigration: Earned Settlement

Robert Jenrick Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

Let me assure my hon. Friend that the Government have already closed a number of asylum hotels. We have made £1 billion-worth of savings in asylum accommodation, and we will fulfil our manifesto commitment to close all hotels in this Parliament.

[Robert Jenrick (Newark) (Reform)]

I respect the Home Secretary, but these are not the reforms that she wanted. When she said that the Boris wave was destabilising and unprecedented, and that it would cause incalculable damage, she was absolutely right. The Boris wave was the worst public policy failure of the 21st century, and now she risks locking it in for generations to come. When the last Conservative Prime Minister—my Prime Minister—ignored my advice on immigration, I resigned. Her Prime Minister has ignored her advice on immigration, and the damage is going to be disastrous for this country. Why has she not considered her position?

[Shabana Mahmood]

The right hon. Gentleman could also do with more honesty and contrition about his track record, including on the difference between some of the positions he took when he was a Minister in the Tory Government and those that he takes now. I simply say to him that the package of reforms I have announced today, as set out in the consultation document, represent a fair solution for all the cohorts that are caught by the new earned settlement proposals. We have made targeted exemptions where the circumstances justify them. It is this Government that are cleaning up the mess we inherited from the previous lot.