Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Randall Excerpts

Monday 22nd May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Suzanne Webb (Stourbridge) (Con)]

10. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of small boat crossings of the English channel.

[Tom Randall (Gedling) (Con)]

21. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of small boat crossings of the English channel.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Suella Braverman)]

Our Illegal Migration Bill will end illegal entry as a route to asylum in the United Kingdom, breaking the business model of the people-smuggling gangs and restoring fairness to our asylum system.

[Suella Braverman]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Prime Minister and I are determined to stop the boats—we are doubling the number of UK-funded personnel in France, and for the first time specialist UK officers are embedded with their French counterparts—whereas I am afraid the Labour party has consistently voted against our measures, not just in the Illegal Migration Bill but in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. We know that Labour Members would scrap Rwanda. The truth is that they do not want to stop the boats; they want to open our borders.

[Tom Randall]

In a recent interview, the Leader of the Opposition was unable to say whether he would repeal the Public Order Act 2023, which protects the public against seriously disruptive protests. Given this flip-flopping on key legislation, does my right hon. Friend agree that it is only this Conservative Government who can be trusted to stop the boats, and that it is entirely possible that the Opposition, having tried to vote down the Illegal Migration Bill several times, will change their mind on that as well?