Government’s immigration plans ‘are all about gimmicks’ Tories claim
THE government’s plans to tackle migration are “all about gimmicks”, according to Shadow Home Office Minister Matt Vickers.
He told GB News: “I don’t think we’ll ever expect Labour to get a grip of it the way that they’re going. But the reality is, there’s some small steps in the right direction here, but of course, a lot more gimmicks. And we know this government’s approach to immigration is all about gimmicks.
“We had the one in, one out scheme, 16,500 people arrived since it started and 99.5% of them have been able to stay. We heard about the smashing of the gangs. We’ve seen no smashing of any gangs.
“The reality is that since this Labour government came to office, the number of people arriving has gone up by 55%, the number in hotels has gone up. It had halved at the back end of the last government has now gone back up.
“And then when you look at the number of people who arrived illegally and are being removed from this country, it is down. Everything is going in the wrong direction. But are we surprised that Keir Starmer has presided over such a situation?
Matt Vickers GB News.jpeg
“This is a guy who said that all border controls had an element of racism in them, is a guy who voted against every single measure brought forward to toughen up our asylum system. And he and Shabana Mahmoud were people who signed a letter opposing the deportation of foreign criminals.
“No surprises that everything is going the wrong way on illegal immigration in this country with them at the driving wheel.”
On the proposal to make migrants wait 20 years before they can claim citizenship, he said: “We welcome any moves to toughen up the system. But the reality is, they shouldn’t be waiting. If you come to this country, I know this government prefers to talk about it as irregular migration, if you come to this country illegally, you break into our country, you should not be allowed to stay.
“I don’t care whether it takes 10, 20, 30 years to qualify for ILR. If you come to this country illegally, you should not be allowed to stay full stop. You should be removed and sent home.”
He said there needs to be a cap on migration in order to bring numbers down: “There are three elements. Firstly, we’ve said that you need a cap. Government, Parliament needs to be responsible and determine how many people can come here legally, and that needs to be the limit.
“But actually, moreover, we’ve actually seen progress on legal migration. The last government brought in measures to prevent people bringing their nan and their dad and their gran and everybody else with them. We removed the ability for people to bring so many dependents, and all of a sudden, it significantly reduced the number.
”There were proposals for last well, for this year, in April, that would have seen the amount you have to earn in order to bring a dependent here increase significantly to £38,000. It was in there. It was ready to happen. And this government went in and took it out.
“That would have been a huge reduction in the number of people who came here legally. If people come to work legally, determined by the government in their numbers, determined by the government in what they’re coming here to do, then we can get a grip on it, but we need to be much tougher than the government’s proposing.”
