The text of Rishi Sunak’s speech in Dover on illegal migration is here. And here are the highlights from what he said in his opening remarks, and in the Q&A.
My message is this – our plan is starting to work.
Before I launched my plan in December, the number entering the UK illegally in small boats had more than quadrupled in two years.
Some said this problem was insoluble or just a fact of 21st century life.
They’d lost faith in politicians to put in the hard yards to do something about it.
And, of course, we have a long way still to go.
But in the five months since I launched the plan, crossings are now down 20 per cent compared to last year.
That’s right: crossings are down 20 per cent.
This is the first time since this problem began that arrivals between January and May have actually fallen compared to the year before.
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He brushed aside suggestions that the fall in numbers was partly due to bad weather. Asked how he could be sure his policies were a factor, he said that the 20% fall in UK arrivals coincided with illegal immigration into the rest of Europe going up by 30%. And asked specifically about the strong winds in the Channel in recent days, which are said to explain why the recent arrival numbers have been very low, he just said weather was not something he could control. Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party, claimed the weather was the key factor.
To reduce pressures on local communities, we’ll also house people on ships.
The first will arrive in Portland in the next fortnight.
And we’ve secured another two today that will accommodate another 1,000.
He also said the camps for asylum seekers at the former military bases at Wethersfield and Scampton would open soon, with “hundreds” moving in over the summer and almost 3,000 being housed on those sites by the autumn.
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He said that the French stopped 33,000 people crossing the Channel last year, up 40% on the previous year, and that interceptions this year by the French are “up considerably”.
In December I reached a deal with Albania because last year nearly a third of all those arriving in small boats were from that safe European country.
That’s delivering too.
We’ve now returned 1800 to Albania in just six months.
We’ve gone from accepting around 1 in 5 Albanian asylum cases to now just 1 in 50 – in line with our European partners.
And what is the result of all of this?
So far this year, the number of Albanian small boat arrivals has fallen by almost 90 per cent.
This is proof that our deterrence strategy can work. When people know that if they come here illegally, they won’t get to stay - they stop coming.
I promised to clear through the backlog of people waiting for initial decision.
Numbers published today show the initial decision legacy backlog is down by over 17,000.
And we’re on track to clear it entirely by the end of the year.
Mark Easton, the BBC’s home affairs correspondent, says Sunak is wrong about this.
On detention, the reason that’s in place is because we don’t want to create an incentive for people to put children on these boats.
If you exempted children from the policy then it would give every incentive for people to bring children on with them and you put more children at risk actually so I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.
Obviously there are appropriate facilities for families so they’re not separated, they’re kept together. We need to make sure that that’s done properly and fairly as it always has been and will continue to do so. I think it would be a mistake to exclude children because it would create an incentive for people to put more children on the boats and that would be awful.
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Keir Starmer has issued a statement in response to Rishi Sunak’s small boats speech, linking it (rather creatively) to his visit to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset this morning. Starmer claimed small boats and nuclear power were both examples of “dither and delay” by the government. He said:
We need to stop the boats. We’re clear we don’t want anyone making that dangerous journey. But all we’ve had from the government is policies that aren’t working, then the re-announcement of the same policy, with a self-congratulatory pat on the back. It feels like groundhog day and it’s costing the taxpayer a fortune.
There’s a growing sense of frustration about the government’s dither and delay. I’m at Hinkley Point C today, a fantastic project showcasing the talent and skills our country has, but it’s behind schedule and there’s a frustration that there’s no real plan from the government to drive it forward. Whether it’s small boats or nuclear, there’s a pattern of behaviour here and it’s holding our country back.
Colin Yeo, a prominent immigration barrister, has published a good analysis of Rishi Sunak’s small boat claims (see 12.55pm) on his Free Movement website. He accepts that the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats does seem to be down by around 20% so far this year (the latest figures are here), but he says there is no evidence this has anything do with the illegal migration bill.
Yeo’s article is worth reading in full, but here is an extract.
It is conceivable [the fall in numbers] might be related to the Rwanda plan. However, there are three other potential explanations which are also plausible.
One is that people are shifting route again in order to try and enter by clandestine means. So far, those arriving in small boats have wanted to be detected. The whole idea was to claim asylum, which involves making yourself known to the authorities. As I’ve previously suggested, if being detected (a) has no benefits (because your asylum claim will never be considered) and (b) actually carries risks (because you might be detained and then removed to Rwanda) then migrants might either decide not to come or decide to avoid detection.
Another is that the weather has been worse this year than last. Small boat crossings are heavily dependent on the weather.
Another is that the efforts to prevent departures from the French coast have been more effective. Sunak says they have. That’s got nothing to do with the Rwanda plan or how migrants are treated once they reach the UK, though.
Given there has never been any evidence that deterrent policies actually work, I’d guess that the three alternative explanations have more to do with the reduction compared to last year. If it’s all about the weather, I suppose we’d soon see crossings increase to comparable or higher numbers than last year. There’s no good way I can think of to test the other hypotheses. By their nature we can’t count clandestine arrivals.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, says Rishi Sunak’s claims today (see 12.55pm) do not match reality.
The text of Rishi Sunak’s speech in Dover on illegal migration is here. And here are the highlights from what he said in his opening remarks, and in the Q&A.
My message is this – our plan is starting to work.
Before I launched my plan in December, the number entering the UK illegally in small boats had more than quadrupled in two years.
Some said this problem was insoluble or just a fact of 21st century life.
They’d lost faith in politicians to put in the hard yards to do something about it.
And, of course, we have a long way still to go.
But in the five months since I launched the plan, crossings are now down 20 per cent compared to last year.
That’s right: crossings are down 20 per cent.
This is the first time since this problem began that arrivals between January and May have actually fallen compared to the year before.
-
He brushed aside suggestions that the fall in numbers was partly due to bad weather. Asked how he could be sure his policies were a factor, he said that the 20% fall in UK arrivals coincided with illegal immigration into the rest of Europe going up by 30%. And asked specifically about the strong winds in the Channel in recent days, which are said to explain why the recent arrival numbers have been very low, he just said weather was not something he could control. Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party, claimed the weather was the key factor.
To reduce pressures on local communities, we’ll also house people on ships.
The first will arrive in Portland in the next fortnight.
And we’ve secured another two today that will accommodate another 1,000.
He also said the camps for asylum seekers at the former military bases at Wethersfield and Scampton would open soon, with “hundreds” moving in over the summer and almost 3,000 being housed on those sites by the autumn.
-
He said that the French stopped 33,000 people crossing the Channel last year, up 40% on the previous year, and that interceptions this year by the French are “up considerably”.
In December I reached a deal with Albania because last year nearly a third of all those arriving in small boats were from that safe European country.
That’s delivering too.
We’ve now returned 1800 to Albania in just six months.
We’ve gone from accepting around 1 in 5 Albanian asylum cases to now just 1 in 50 – in line with our European partners.
And what is the result of all of this?
So far this year, the number of Albanian small boat arrivals has fallen by almost 90 per cent.
This is proof that our deterrence strategy can work. When people know that if they come here illegally, they won’t get to stay - they stop coming.
I promised to clear through the backlog of people waiting for initial decision.
Numbers published today show the initial decision legacy backlog is down by over 17,000.
And we’re on track to clear it entirely by the end of the year.
Mark Easton, the BBC’s home affairs correspondent, says Sunak is wrong about this.
On detention, the reason that’s in place is because we don’t want to create an incentive for people to put children on these boats.
If you exempted children from the policy then it would give every incentive for people to bring children on with them and you put more children at risk actually so I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.
Obviously there are appropriate facilities for families so they’re not separated, they’re kept together. We need to make sure that that’s done properly and fairly as it always has been and will continue to do so. I think it would be a mistake to exclude children because it would create an incentive for people to put more children on the boats and that would be awful.
There will be one urgent question in the Commons today, on Kosovo, followed by statements on illegal migration and on the Covid inquiry.
Rishi Sunak took a helicopter to Dover today, instead of taking the train, Peter Walker reports. This is something that has happened a lot before; Sunak uses helicopters, for government trips (funded by the taxpayer) and for party/personal trips (paid for by himself, or by donors) probably more than any of his predecessors.
Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, should apologise for breaking Commons rules that say MPs should not try to influence an inquiry by the parliamentary commissioner for standards, the Commons standards committee said in a report this morning.
It said that although Hancock’s offence was relatively minor, he has still not acknowledged that he made a mistake. The committee said:
This was a minor breach of the code; however, Mr Hancock has still not acknowledged his mistake. We recommend that he should apologise to the house and to the commissioner by means of a personal statement, the terms of which should be agreed in advance by Mr Speaker and the chair of the committee. We also recommend that Mr Hancock attends a briefing on his obligations under the code with the commissioner.
Daniel Greenberg, the commissioner, opened an investigation earlier this year into a claim that Steve Brine, the Conservative chair of the Commons health committee, broke Commons lobbying rules by contacting a cabinet minister on behalf of a firm that was paying him.
When he heard about the inquiry, Hancock sent Greenberg an unsolicited letter saying that he thought Brine had acted in the national interest during the Covid inquiry and that Brine “did nothing improper and should be cleared from any accusation given his actions were in line with his duties as a member of parliament”.
Greenberg then launched an inquiry into Hancock because his letter appeared to be a breach of a rule for MPs saying:
Members must not lobby a member of the committee on standards, the independent expert panel or the parliamentary commissioner for standards, or their staff, in a manner calculated or intended to influence their consideration of whether a breach of the code of conduct has occurred, or in relation to the imposition of a sanction.
Greenberg said Hancock had broken this rule, and the committee agreed. It said:
This case underlines that respect for the code and the processes for investigating potential breaches of the code, which were voted for by the house, is an important and necessary part of the code. We expect Mr Hancock to reflect his understanding of this in his apology.
Q: Are you satisfied that the French are doing enough to stop the boats. What is their interception rate? Is that good value for money for the £500m being spent by the British taxpayer?
Sunak says the French stopped 33,000 people crossing the Channel last year. That was 40% up on the previous year, he says.
And he says this year, whether you look at the figures for the first quarter, or for the first five months, the interception rate in France is “up considerably”, he says.
Q: How long will you allow children to be detained for?
Sunak says, if children were excluded from the detention policy, that would provide an incentive for children to be put on boats.
And that’s it. The Q&A is over.
I’ll post a summary shortly.
Q: What are you doing to help reduce the pressure on public services in Kent?
Sunak says the government is trying to ensure Kent gets the support it needs. He pays tribute to the lobbying done by Natalie Elphicke, the Dover MP.
He says the best way to relieve the pressure on Kent is to stop people coming in the first place. That is why the illegal migration bill is so important, he says.
Q: It has been very windy on the Channel in recent days, which is why there have been few crossings. Is that why you are here today?
Sunak says there are many things he can control, but not the weather. But it is important for him to visit Dover and see what is being done to stop the crossings. He has been before, he says.
He says children are being exposed to these dangerous crossings. “That is completely and utterly wrong,” he says. That is why “the moral thing do to and the compassionate thing to do” is to stop the crossings, he says.
Q: When you go to Washington, will you be backing Ben Wallace for the next head of Nato?
Sunak says Wallace is “widely respected” by other defence ministers. He has done a great job, he says. He says the UK has always been a major contribute to Nato. And he says he thinks the Nato secretary general would agree.
Sunak says the government has made more progress on this issue “than anyone has made in a very long time”.
Q: Where are the new barges for asylum seekers going?
Sunak says that will be announced in due course. But it is important to him to reduce the number of people staying in hotels, he says.
He says it is reasonable and fair to expect asylum seekers to share rooms if they are in hotels.
Q: Will communities get enough notice of where barges are going?
Sunak says the government does engage with local communities. They get funding to help them with costs, and 24-hour security is in place.
A barge is being installed in Portland. Two more barges are going to be used, he says.
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