The final week of the Parliamentary session before the summer was spent getting the Illegal Migration Bill through Parliament and it is now law.
The number of small boats arriving on our shores has overwhelmed the asylum system. The system costs the taxpayer £3 billion a year and since 2018 some 85,000 people have illegally entered the UK by small boat. Every person crossing the channel into the UK has passed through safe countries where they could have claimed asylum. They are choosing the UK as a preferred destination.
Those who cross the channel by boat are not only coming here illegally, but they are jumping the queue. This is creating a huge backlog for the Home Office and is disadvantaging and delaying entry for legal migrants and others with a right to be in this country.
The Illegal Migration Bill allows the Home Secretary to remove anyone who enters the UK illegally and significantly curbs the ability of illegal migrants to use the legal system to lodge appeals and challenges against their removal. Illegal migrants will also face a permanent ban on lawful re-entry to the UK and a permanent bar from securing settlement in the UK or from securing British citizenship through naturalisation or registration.
Existing pressures on NHS, housing, council budgets and public services are only going to increase as the Government is forced to house increasing numbers of illegal migrants across the country. It is therefore crucial that we address the problem at source and take every possible measure to stop the flow of migrants across the channel. The numbers coming here are completely unsustainable. Not only is the Home Office unable to process applications, but we are running out of places to accommodate people.
Of course we all have huge sympathy for people fleeing war zones. That does not mean that anyone who seeks to come to UK can be welcomed; it's not feasible.
People are rightly concerned about this issue. The taxpayer is paying an ever-increasing bill to support those who have arrived illegally whilst they themselves face huge challenges with a cost of living crisis and in accessing public services. Those who opposed the bill, including the Labour Party, do not understand the impact of mass illegal migration on ordinary people struggling to make ends meet. I am glad the Government has taken firm action.
Photo above: Lucy Allan MP with the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman MP
