Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and John Baron

Monday 10th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

A constructive debate on immigration was exactly what my hon. Friend was contributing to, and I do not accept the right hon. Gentleman’s description of his speech. As I said in answer to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Mr Robertson), the immigration Minister was pointing out that uncontrolled immigration has greatest impact on those at the lower end of the income scale. I would have thought that as a Labour Member of Parliament, the right hon. Gentleman should care about that.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

23. Given that freedom of movement within the EU is the elephant in the room of the immigration issue, what plans do the Government have to reform that part of the EU strategy? It might have been suitable for the founding fathers, but given that there are now 28 member states with disparate economic cycles, it is past its sell-by date. Otherwise, we should stop talking about targets.

[Mrs May]

My hon. Friend makes an important point about free movement. I have been party to discussions and have raised the issue, particularly on the question of the abuse of free movement, within the EU. Many other member states are concerned. We are taking action with them to cut out the problems of the abuse of free movement.

My hon. Friend also mentioned the disparity of incomes among accession countries. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, in an article he wrote some weeks ago, suggested that a future approach might be not allowing full free movement rights until accession countries have reached a certain income level compared with the rest of the EU.

Syrian Refugees

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and John Baron

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I am very happy to liaise closely with the Welsh Government, and any opportunities or support that they can give on the relocation of individuals who come to the UK as a result of this scheme will be welcomed. There are different types of status for individuals. We will consider the matter further, but we currently propose that these individuals will be given temporary residence here, but with access to the labour market and other benefits in the same way as refugees would have.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

As someone who was critical of the Government’s position on this, I congratulate the Home Secretary on this announcement. Will she confirm that, when looking at the criteria, children will not be separated from parents?

[Mrs May]

I assure my hon. Friend that there is no intention to separate children from parents.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and John Baron

Monday 25th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

17. What progress her Department is making in reducing net migration to the UK.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

As has already been referred to this afternoon, the latest statistics show another significant fall in net migration—down almost a third since June 2010. This shows that we are bringing immigration back under control. Our tough policies continue to have an effect, and this marks a further step towards bringing net migration down from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs May]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and that is exactly what the new “Life in the UK” test does. We have revamped the requirements for people taking the test. It is no longer about water meters and how to claim benefits, but enables people to participate fully in our society. It has sections on British history. The test enables people to understand what being resident in the United Kingdom is about and how to participate in our society, and I think that is absolutely right.

[Mr Baron]

The nation has always been tolerant of persecuted minorities—quite rightly—and, indeed, seen the benefits of immigration, but controls under the last Government collapsed into an absolute shambles. What more can the Government do to control immigration for the benefit of public services and how confident are they that the Prime Minister’s proposals, announced today, will be implemented in time for the EU transitional controls, ending at the end of the year?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and John Baron

Monday 7th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

We have no plans to review the policy. At local level, those providing accommodation are contractually required to discuss the local impact with local authorities, education providers and others so that it can be assessed regularly. My hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration will be visiting my hon. Friend’s constituency in the coming weeks and will be able to see for himself the impact that this is having there and discuss the issue.

[Mr Baron]

Our public services are already overstretched, and there is concern that we will see a fresh wave of immigration from Romania and Bulgaria as the transitional agreements lapse at the end of this year. What lessons have the Government learnt from our experiences in 2004?

[Mrs May]

The very clear lesson we learned was that we should ensure that transitional controls are placed on any future accession countries, and that is indeed what we will do in relation to Croatia’s accession. As my hon. Friend the Immigration Minister has indicated, we are also taking a number of steps to look at the abuse of free movement and how free movement operates across the European Union.

European Justice and Home Affairs Powers

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and John Baron

Monday 15th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

The Scott Baker report made it absolutely clear that there were a number of areas in which the European arrest warrant should be amended and changed.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

I welcome this opt-out, but given that any future opt-in would give UK jurisdiction to the European Court of Justice for the first time, would it not be better to rule out any opt-ins in the future?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and John Baron

Monday 6th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

We are looking at the whole issue of strengthening police enforcement, and one of the things we are doing is undertaking a number of exercises—an example has been seen in the north-east in recent weeks—where the police have strengthened their enforcement and gone into scrap metal dealers where they believe rogue dealing is taking place.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

14. What plans she has to reduce administrative burdens on police forces.