This week Sky News has been identifying the gaps in Britain’s border defences.
As the number of small boats crossing the Channel breaks new records and European countries brace for a new wave of people fleeing Afghanistan, the issue is rising up the public consciousness once more.
Ministers are meant to be able now to deliver on their promise to take back control post Brexit. So why does it not yet feel like that to some?
The government response to this issue is being led by Home Secretary Priti Patel. Nobody would doubt her right-wing credentials, and interestingly she has had plaudits from across the political spectrum for her handling of the migration aspects of the Afghanistan crisis.
Image: Home Secretary Priti Patel talking to a refugee from Afghanistan who arrived on a evacuation flight at Heathrow Pic: AP
Her answer to the questions around Britain’s borders is the Nationality and Borders Bill currently in committee stage in the House of Commons. But does it answer the problems, many of which are caused beyond Britain’s borders?
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Italian island is migrant gateway to EU
Tom Tugendhat, Tory chair of the foreign affairs select committee told Sky News the answer is to send more Royal Navy vessels to help in the Med.
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“Our great strength we have with NATO allies around is that our border doesn’t start at Dover, it starts at the southern tip of Italy and Greece – working together and making sure these borders are defended and reinforced is exactly what we should be doing… but need to do more.
“Not about being kind to Italians. Its about defending ourselves further out.”
The Nationality and Borders Bill tightens the penalties for people smugglers in an attempt to tackle the problem.
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Tracking migrants with French Border Police
Another issue comes when migrants who have made it to the EU then try and cross the Channel to Britain. Sky News’ Michelle Clifford found that while French authorities would stop anyone still on land who looked like they would be attempting to cross the Channel, they would not stop boats once they were in the water, even when it was under French control.
They blame international law, thought many in Britain including MPs on the home affairs select committee claim the French are wrongly interpreting this.
Tim Loughton, Tory member of the home affairs select committee, said the French interpretation was “completely wrong”.
He added “We have evidence from maritime international lawyers – they made it clear that French authorities have power to intercept and repatriate passengers on boats, but actually have an obligation under international law – people on boats guilty of trying to enter UK illegally and paying organised crime to facilitate that journey, that would give grounds to French authorities to apprehend people, that is only what is going to stop that horrendous trade – people paying money to people smugglers, highly likely with them being taking back…that could stop that miserable trade stone dead.”
Asked why the British government hasn’t succeeded in convincing French they’re wrong, he said: “It’s all excuses, we made it clear – French claiming it’s a different interpretation, that’s wrong – also internal politics going on, a big row with those who run Calais and the federal government. They’re each trying to make it each other’s problem.”
The Nationality and Borders Bill will mark a serious attempt to block illegal immigration, alongside the new post Brexit points based entry system.
It will make it easier to return some illegal asylum seekers more quickly, make some asylum seekers apply before they reach UK shores and give border officials powers to turn back boats in UK waters.
But this does not – and cannot – stop Britain being an attractive country for economic migrants and asylum seekers.
Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch said that Britain would remain a country many aspire to live in so more had to be done to turn back illegal arrivals.
“Britain is an attractive country, so is France, US – most people wanted to got to the US first, we are part of wider picture of prosperous civilised fun countries.
“A lot of those coming are young man who want a better life – we are part of the story, in a way we have create the opportunity for a lot of Afghans to want to come here.”
But he added that once here, many were treated generously with little chance of being sent back.
“One of the principle reasons why the traffickers are able to sell Britain as the destination of choice is that having arrived here there’s very little chance of being sent back – very few people who apply for asylum and fail actually are sent back.
“That is a huge factor, while they’re here, we look after – hotels, detention centres that have been used – even these are not bad accommodations, there is a bit of money given for people to spend.
“Once you’re in the system you’re looked after – people see messages coming across, it is all made to be very attractive.”
Kemi Badenoch has offered to help the government pass legislation to slash the welfare bill – but with conditions attached.
In a speech on Tuesday morning, the Conservative Party leader accused the government of having “totally lost control of spending” and “leading Britain into a deeper and deeper crisis”.
She argued that the only way to fix the issue was to dramatically reduce the welfare budget – and set out to Sky News political correspondent Tamara Cohen her conditions for supporting the government.
Speaking at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ms Badenoch said: “We are the only party arguing that government has to live within its means.
“Every single other political party in parliament today, every single other one, wants to increase welfare spending and they voted to do so.
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“They wanted to lift the so-called two child benefit cap. They don’t mind that our sickness benefits bill alone is on course to reach £100bn by 2030.”
The Tory leader said the chancellor will have no option but to raise taxes at the budget in the autumn to fund Labour’s spending plans, and also pay the interest on the vast government debt.
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Is Badenoch right to say UK might need a bailout?
But she claimed that “some in government must know that things need to change”, saying: “You can picture their grim faces, looking at the latest OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility forecast] figures.
“But the truth is they came into government with no real plans for how to save money – only how to spend it. That’s why they are in trouble.”
To that end, she said she is “making the prime minister a serious offer” because “the Conservative Party will always act in the national interest”.
She noted that Sir Keir Starmer had tried to cut welfare spending by targeting benefits paid to disabled people, but had to “gut” the legislation just before the vote and was “humiliated by his own backbenches”.
But she continued: “If he is serious about cutting spending, and really bringing down the welfare bill, we will help him.”
And pointing to Angela Rayner’s resignation, and the ensuing contest for a new deputy Labour leader, Ms Badneoch said: “Whether he wants to admit it or not, Keir Starmer needs our help.”
‘We need to find common ground’
Speaking to Sky News after her speech, the Tory leader said she will only support new government legislation on welfare as long as it brings the total spending down.
“Right now, what I’m offering is for us to sit down together and find common ground,” she told Cohen. “We know that this is difficult, but Conservatives have done this before. We had to find welfare savings and reform welfare in the coalition, [majority] government and after, and we can do it again.”
Image: Labour called the Tory leader ‘delusional’. Pic: PA/House of Commons
She insisted the Tories reduced the welfare bill before the pandemic, when it started going up again.
She said: “We fixed the previous problem. There is now a new problem and what we’re saying is let’s work together to fix it.”
“If we don’t live within our means, we will go bankrupt and our children will have to pay off the debt,” she added.
‘Stop all these distractions’
Ms Badenoch was also challenged on her claim that she was offered a scholarship place at the Stanford Medical School in California, which The Guardian reports has been denied by the admissions staff who were there at the time.
She told Cohen: “They’ve been told something that I didn’t say. I didn’t say I was offered a place – I said I was offered a scholarship, a part scholarship. I hadn’t applied for it.
“But I stand by every single thing that I said. It’s something American universities do. They send out speculative offers.”
Image: Kemi Badenoch was asked about scholarship offer claims. Pic: PA
She called on people to “stop all these distractions about who said what, and who’s up and who is down”, and focus on Angela Rayner’s property taxes, and the economy.
“I tell the truth. I stand by what I said. But right now, the truth is our economy is going in the wrong direction – it’s in free fall, and we have got to fix this.”
A Labour Party spokesperson rejected Ms Badenoch’s offer of help.
“It’s delusional of Kemi Badenoch to think anyone would want to take economic advice from her Conservative Party,” they said. “Their economy-crashing, growth-killing, irresponsible approach to governing left mortgages spiralling and working people worse off.
“The only thing in Britain that needs a bailout is the Conservative Party from its leadership. The Tories haven’t listened, they haven’t learned, and they can’t be trusted.
“Labour is clear that people who can work should work. This Labour government is getting people back into the workplace and out of the doom loop of joblessness that spiralled out of control under the Conservatives.”
The group of 12 senators stressed the need for a bipartisan solution to market structure as Republicans on the banking committee plan to pass a bill this month.
In her first audition for the job of Labour deputy leader, Bridget Phillipson came to Brighton to woo the trade unions. And she began with a traumatic story about her childhood.
By the time she rose to address the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference at 3.30pm, she was one of no fewer than six candidates, all women, having announced her bid as “a proud working-class woman from the North East from a single-parent family”.
And as is the habit of candidates for election to high office these days – Sir Keir Starmer first told the story about his father Rodney the toolmaker in a speech at a TUC conference – she told delegates about an ordeal during her childhood.
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PM’s first cabinet meeting since reshuffle
She could have gone on to say that that love of reading took her from her Catholic high school to Oxford University, where she graduated in history and modern languages.
Her grandfather, she said, fought on the front line in the Second World War, then was in the vanguard of new nurses helping to build the new National Health Service, under the Attlee government.
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“And so, congress, when people ask me where my values come from, I point to my mam, to my grandparents, to my neighbours, to my community,” she said.
Lots of politicians claim working class origins, poverty and hardship. And no doubt some of them embellish their humble back story for political advantage.
But Bridget Phillipson is the genuine working class article. And her story – like Sir Keir’s Rodney the toolmaker – is one we’ll no doubt hear a lot more during this deputy leader election campaign.