Suella Braverman: Criminal behaviour by people arriving illegally ‘at odds with British values’
The behaviour of people arriving in the UK on small boats is “at odds with British values”, the home secretary has claimed.
Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Suella Braverman said people making the dangerous Channel crossing – who include asylum seekers – were “behaving unacceptably” by “breaking our rules” and “abusing the generosity of the British people”.
But she also claimed criminality was “very closely linked” to their arrival, telling our political correspondent Ali Fortescue: “We see that there are many people coming here illegally who are then getting involved in drugs, who are getting involved in violent crime, who are getting involved in prostitution.
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Small boats migrants are ‘asylum shoppers’, says minister
“All of that is at odds with British values, all of that is unacceptable behaviour.”
The Home Office was unable to point Sky News to crime statistics to back up these claims.
But a source from the department said chief constables and senior police officers had told the home secretary about “increased criminality relating to people who entered the UK on small boats”, and she was “clear that those who enter the UK on small boats are breaking the law by definition of their route of entry”.
Her remarks come as MPs are debating the Illegal Migration Bill in the Commons, with Tory rebels threatening to throw the government off course by introducing their own amendments .
One wing of the party, lead by veteran Conservative backbencher Tim Loughton, wants to make sure more safe and legal routes are introduced for asylum seekers to come to the UK.
Speaking in the debate, immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the government “accepts the need for greater clarity” in the area and would put a report to MPs within six months “detailing existing and proposed additional safe and legal routes for those in need of protection”.
And he said ministers would “aim to implement the proposed new routes as soon as practicable and in any event by the end of 2024”.
Sky News understands Mr Loughton won’t push the amendment to a vote as a result.
But another change is being proposed by former Prime Minister Theresa May and ex-party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who are seeking to protect victims of modern slavery.
Currently, suspected victims are given temporary protection from being removed from the country while their case is considered, but the senior Tories are angry that the bill removes this measure if they have been judged to have entered the UK illegally.
Mr Jenrick promised to “look at what more we can do to provide additional protections to individuals who suffered exploitation in the UK”.
But while Mrs May welcomed further discussions, she said the current plan was a “slap in the face” for those who care about the victims of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Theresa May attacked the government over how its bill would impact victims of modern slavery.
“The government will be ensuring that more people will stay enslaved and in exploitation as a result of this Bill because it will give the slavedrivers, it will give the traffickers, another weapon to hold people in that slavery and exploitation,” she said.
“Because it’ll be very easy to say to them, ‘don’t even think about trying to escape from the misery of your life, from the suffering we’re subjecting you to, because all the UK government will do is send you away and probably send you to Rwanda’.”
The ex-PM added: “The Modern Slavery Act gave hope to victims, this bill removes that hope. I genuinely believe that, if enacted as it is currently proposed, this bill will leave more people, more men, women and children, in slavery in the UK.”
Despite the harsh criticism, Sky News also understand the backbenchers won’t push this amendment to a vote and may wait for the bill to head to the Lords to try and change it.
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel-Iran live: Trump says US knows where Iran’s supreme leader is ‘hiding’
It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
Read more:
The bunker buster bomb which could destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions
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Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
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Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
Read more from Sky News:
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Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
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