Latest news with #RwandaScheme
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Philp: Rwanda scheme would have stopped small boat crossings
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp says the Rwanda scheme and "removing pretty much every person crossing the channel" would have deterred migrants from attempting to reach the UK via small boat.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Yvette Cooper Delivers Brutal Commons Slapdown To Chris Philp Over The Tories' Immigration Failures
Yvette Cooper delivered a brutal slapdown to Chris Philp after he called on her to apologise to the country for the ongoing small boats crisis. The home secretary reminded her Tory opposite number of his own government's failures as they clashed in the Commons. Philp had criticised the migrant returns deal Keir Starmer struck with Emmanuel Macron last week, which will see France accept some illegal immigrants from the UK. He also condemned Cooper for scrapping the Rwanda scheme, even though it never forcibly deported a single asylum seeker to Africa. Philp told MPs the home secretary had 'presided over the highest number of illegal small boat crossings in history'. 'Will she now apologise to the House and to the country for her appalling failure?', he added. But Cooper pointed out that 128,000 migrants had crossed the Channel under the Tories, and none were ever returned to France. She said: 'As for the agreement with France, which he does not seem to want to talk about very much, I asked him about exactly that back in 2020, when I was chair of the home affairs committee and he was immigration minister. 'I specifically asked 'what chance do you put on being able to get a bilateral agreement, say with France, for them to take back people who have arrived here from France'. 'He said—this was five years ago—that that was what he was working on. Indeed, he told the committee 'one of our priorities will be to reach those agreements and it is, I think, strongly in the French national interest to agree such a returns agreement. That gives me significant cause for optimism'. 'Well, it turns out that he should have been optimistic—about the return of a Labour government, reaching an agreement where he had failed.' Cooper added: 'The Conservatives never understood that it is not possible to change things simply by jumping up and down and shouting about them. It needs partnership working and hard graft, and that is what this government have done.' Yvette Cooper reveals that Chris Philp(Tory MP) was working on a returns agreement with France, back in 2020, when he was immigration minister. 🔥 — Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) July 14, 2025 Emmanuel Macron Blames Brexiteers For Small Boats Crisis After Striking Migrant Deal With Starmer What Is Expected To Be In Starmer And Macron's 'One-In, One-Out' Migrant Deal? Chris Philp Dismissed Starmer's Migrant Deal As A 'Gimmick'. Then He Was Reminded About Rwanda
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Yvette Cooper Delivers Brutal Commons Slapdown To Chris Philp Over The Tories' Immigration Failures
Yvette Cooper delivered a brutal slapdown to Chris Philp after he called on her to apologise to the country for the ongoing small boats crisis. The home secretary reminded her Tory opposite number of his own government's failures as they clashed in the Commons. Philp had criticised the migrant returns deal Keir Starmer struck with Emmanuel Macron last week, which will see France accept some illegal immigrants from the UK. He also condemned Cooper for scrapping the Rwanda scheme, even though it never forcibly deported a single asylum seeker to Africa. Philp told MPs the home secretary had 'presided over the highest number of illegal small boat crossings in history'. 'Will she now apologise to the House and to the country for her appalling failure?', he added. But Cooper pointed out that 128,000 migrants had crossed the Channel under the Tories, and none were ever returned to France. She said: 'As for the agreement with France, which he does not seem to want to talk about very much, I asked him about exactly that back in 2020, when I was chair of the home affairs committee and he was immigration minister. 'I specifically asked 'what chance do you put on being able to get a bilateral agreement, say with France, for them to take back people who have arrived here from France'. 'He said—this was five years ago—that that was what he was working on. Indeed, he told the committee 'one of our priorities will be to reach those agreements and it is, I think, strongly in the French national interest to agree such a returns agreement. That gives me significant cause for optimism'. 'Well, it turns out that he should have been optimistic—about the return of a Labour government, reaching an agreement where he had failed.' Cooper added: 'The Conservatives never understood that it is not possible to change things simply by jumping up and down and shouting about them. It needs partnership working and hard graft, and that is what this government have done.' Yvette Cooper reveals that Chris Philp(Tory MP) was working on a returns agreement with France, back in 2020, when he was immigration minister. 🔥 — Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) July 14, 2025 Emmanuel Macron Blames Brexiteers For Small Boats Crisis After Striking Migrant Deal With Starmer What Is Expected To Be In Starmer And Macron's 'One-In, One-Out' Migrant Deal? Chris Philp Dismissed Starmer's Migrant Deal As A 'Gimmick'. Then He Was Reminded About Rwanda
The Sun
04-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Starmer's decision to axe Rwanda migrant scheme has backfired spectacularly leaving us no proper deterrent
Small boasts THERE was much excitement in Whitehall yesterday that French border cops had managed to enter the water and puncture a single rubber dinghy. Number Ten went so far as to call it a 'significant moment' — entirely overlooking the fact that at least six more boatloads of illegal immigrants WERE allowed to set sail for Dover. 1 In truth, ministers are desperate to cling to any sign of getting value for the £480million gifted to France. During Labour's first year in office, a staggering 40,000 crossed the Channel. Meanwhile, a Government promise to cut the number of asylum claims — the highest since records began in 1979 — has stalled with 107,000 waiting to be processed or appealing. Around 32,000 are in hotels — and plenty of them will be working illegally as delivery drivers. Given the Home Office has managed to deport just 6,000 so far, most will end up staying and many will eventually get free housing. The truth is that Sir Keir Starmer's decision to scrap the Rwanda scheme 12 months ago has backfired spectacularly — leaving us with no proper deterrent. Windy Mili ECO clown Ed Miliband now wants Brits to put windmills in their back gardens to help him meet his impossible green targets. The Energy Secretary also wants to build thousands of 850ft-high wind turbines across the countryside. Miliband clearly doesn't care that that the vast majority of Brits live in tightly packed terraced houses or flats. Keir Starmer's deranged drive for Net Zero with eco-zealot Ed Miliband is a threat to UK's national security- here's why Or that tens of thousands of whirling blades will be a massive blight on the beauty of our communities. Only one thing matters to His Greenness: his legacy as a Net Zero hero. Meanwhile the rest of us are left whistling in the wind. Carp-onystas IT'S a tale of hard-left splitters so bizarre even Monty Python couldn't make up. Zarah Sultana proudly announced she had quit Labour to set up a new party with Jeremy Corbyn. Except someone to forget to tell the Magic Grandpa, who promptly threw his toys out of the left side of the pram. The new group's name has not yet been revealed. But it's likely to be a toss-up between the People's Front of Sultana and the Sultanan People's Front. It might even end up being the Sultana Popular Front.
Daily Mail
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Bring back Rwanda scheme to end small boats crisis, says architect of Australia's successful migrant crackdown
The mastermind behind Australia's migrant crackdown has called on Keir Starmer to 'reinstitute' the Rwanda scheme. Alexander Downer called on the Prime Minister to 'eat a bit of political humble pie' and resurrect the scheme, which was scrapped last year in one of Starmer's first acts after being elected into No 10. Sir Keir insisted the deportation scheme was a £700million 'gimmick' which did nothing to cut migrant Channel crossings. But Mr Downer, who was Australia's minister for foreign affairs from 1996 to 2007, claimed the move was a 'tragedy' and believes it could have worked if the legal issues surrounding it 'could be properly addressed'. 'It would have worked assuming the legal issues could be properly addressed — and they were being,' he told the Sun. 'So the easiest thing for them to do would be to eat a bit of political humble pie and reinstitute the Rwanda scheme.' Just earlier this week, Downing Street admitted the situation in the Channel was 'deteriorating' as the number of migrants reaching the UK topped 2,000 in a week for the first time in 21 months. The 2,222 arrivals over seven days meant an average of one migrant reached Britain every four-and-a-half minutes. Mr Downer has previously expressed his belief in having a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to illegal migration. The former foreign minister was one of the masterminds behind Australia's crackdown on illegal immigration in the early 2000s, which sought to punish migrants who arrived on the country's shores by boat. This meant sending them by boat to detention centres in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru, where migrants would be offered to return to their home countries and refugees were told they could resettle in another. 'Once word got round that if you tried to get into Australia by boat you would not be allowed in and would be sent to Papua New Guinea instead, they ran out of customers. The smugglers' businesses closed down,' he previously said. The Tony Abbott government claimed a 90 per cent reduction in maritime arrivals of asylum seekers once the policy was introduced in 2013. There were 207 arrivals in November that year, opposed to 2,629 in November 2012. Starmer has pledged to crack down on smuggling gangs that bring people into the UK in small boats, including by targeting criminal networks overseas. Last month he said the Government would start talks with other countries on 'return hubs' for failed asylum seekers, which would see failed asylum seekers sent for processing in third countries prior to deportation. The PM admitted these would not be a 'silver bullet' for halting the crossings, but the proposal is expected to act as a deterrent. Last week's crossing total was the most since September 2023, when the former Tory government's Rwanda policy was still in legal limbo. It tipped the total since Labour came to power at last July's general election past the 40,000 mark, hitting 40,276. Since the start of this year, 17,034 migrants have reached Britain, up 38 per cent on the same period last year. The figure does not include hundreds more who reached Dover yesterday. Reform leader Nigel Farage said it was 'about time' Britain faced up to the fact it was 'our fault' – rather than France's – that so many migrants head here. 'We will never stop the boats from leaving France,' he told broadcaster Talk.
