Government must do more on phone theft following McSweeney mugging, says Education Secretary
EDUCATION Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said the government needs to crack down on phone theft following the loss of a Number 10 phone by Morgan McSweeney.
Asked about the incident, Phillipson told the Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “Morgan McSweeney was mugged, had his phone stolen from him, did what was necessary. Reported it. Reported it to the authorities in Downing Street, as well as to the police, which is what you’d expect.
“Now, sadly, this is something that affects lots of people. It’s not an unusual occurrence we see, isn’t it?”
She added: “Sadly, people’s phones are stolen every day. I mean, we need to do more to tackle that. Absolutely.
“We are, all of us, being asked to provide any material that is relevant through the humble address. So we’re committed to doing that.
“Everyone has a responsibility to provide whatever material is within the scope of the humble address. I’ve been asked to do that.
“All ministers will be complying with that, and my expectation is that Morgan McSweeney will do the same. But I think there’s a risk here that we drift into conspiracy theory territory.”
She was also asked if she would support the Prime Minister if there was a U-turn on changes to the immigration system that have been proposed by the Home Secretary.
Phillipson said: “We do need to get our immigration system under control and demonstrate to the public that we are maintaining law and order at the border that is absolutely essential and necessary precondition for being an open and outward society.
“We have to demonstrate, in order to maintain support for immigration, that we’ve got control. One of the areas that is under consideration is how long people have to be in this country before they are given leave to remain.
“We’re always clear that some of these areas are all out for consultation, and that is one of the areas.”
She added: “The Home Secretary has the full support of the government, the Prime Minister, in bringing a degree of order and control to our immigration system that has been undermined for many, many years.
“There are some areas like the one I just referred to that [has] been out to consultation, where we were seeking views on the right way to address this. But there are other areas like making sure that we’re tackling illegal migration, that we’re clamping down.”
On a possible change to the time required to gain indefinite leave to remain, she said: “The length of time under consideration, was out for consultation.
“But the wider point, which is we saw a big increase in the number in a short period of time under Boris Johnson, we saw a big increase in the number of people coming into our country, bigger than you would normally expect. And therefore it was right that we can see that, we consider whether that number is really sustainable and whether we can maintain public confidence in the system with those levels.”
