Keir Starmer rejects ‘nonsense’ claims that Labour immigration plans would increase asylum seeker numbers

Published

9 months ago

September 16, 2023

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Sir Keir Starmer has described Conservative Party claims that Labour’s plans on immigration would increase asylum seeker numbers as “nonsense”.

Speaking exclusively to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, from a summit in Montreal, the Labour leader maintained the government has “no control” of UK borders.

He said: “What concerns people is that basic idea that the government ought to control who comes to this country and now it’s the gangs that decide who should come to the UK.

“What I’m focusing on is how we’re actually going to deal with this.”

Labour has already said it will consider accepting an EU migrant quota as part of a returns agreement – if it gets into power.

The new returns agreement currently being worked on by the EU would mean each member state takes a minimum annual quota of 30,000 migrants, or pays €20,000 (£17,200) for each person they do not accept.

But Sir Keir clarified: “Let me be absolutely crystal clear about this, because the government has been pumping out complete garbage this week, in terms of the numbers that they are suggesting.

“Obviously an EU quota system for EU members… well it’s obvious we are not an EU member.

“That scheme itself isn’t really working very well. So the idea that we’re going to join the EU scheme on quotas is complete nonsense. We’re not an EU member and that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

Labour also wants to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers and increase cooperation with Europol to stop gangs from being able to set off small boats from the French coast in the first place. Sir Keir visited officials in the Hague to discuss the plans this week.

Figures from the Home Office at the end of August showed more than 51,000 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels, costing around £6m per day, while the full bill for the accommodation in the last financial year was £2.28bn.

The backlog of asylum claims in the UK hit a record high in the same month, with a total of 175,457 people waiting for an initial decision on their claim.

Speaking from the meeting of centre-left leaders, which include Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and New Zealand’s former leader Jacinda Ardern, Sir Keir also reiterated that he would use serious crime prevention orders on suspected people smugglers.

He said: “We’ve had serious crime prevention orders for a long time in place in relation to terrorism and other serious offending, and that allows a court to impose restrictions of movement to chase money and freeze money of those involved in organised crime.

“Those orders have never been used to deal with those involved in the vile trade of putting people into the water to cross the channel. And I want them to be used in that way.”

Asked about Commons leader Penny Mordaunt’s likening of him to “Beach Ken” from the new Barbie film, Sir Keir said it was “water off a duck’s back”.

After she claimed he, like the character, has “zero balls” and “stands for nothing”, he added: “When a government has completely run out of energy and ideas, they go down this rabbit hole of ridiculous insults.”

The Labour leader, who will travel to Paris next week for talks with President Emmanuel Macron, also hinted at tax cuts – and sticking to existing commitments on net zero.

Politics

General election: In the marginal seat of North East Fife, it’s all to play for

Published

2 hours ago

June 16, 2024

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General election: In the marginal seat of North East Fife, it's all to play for

In the marginal seat of North East Fife in this election, it is not a straight fight between red and blue, but shades of yellow too.

In 2017, the SNP won here by just two votes ahead of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. That astonishing two-vote tipping point made it the UK’s most marginal seat at the time.

But in 2019, the Lib Dems won it from the SNP, giving the party one of its four MPs in Scotland.

Today, Lib Dem posters line the winding road that takes you to Anstruther’s waterfront.

It’s a charming fishing village and overlooking the harbour are quaint restaurants and gift shops – handmade soap, whisky and fresh fish – it’s all on offer.

With this allure comes a melee of tourists who join us as we hop to each business, talking to them about how the campaigns have resonated with them here.

Election latest: Minister says election ‘not about the past’ as poll suggests Tory wipeout on 4 July

“The tourists are a big part of this area for us,” says Tom Cooper, who’s owned his whisky gift shop for over six years.

He’s even had a few celebrities pop by.

“We get up to eight to nine tourist buses each day in the summer, if we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t survive,” he adds.

He loves having them dropped off outside his door, but the tourist season isn’t long enough to make the off-season easier.

“When it’s very, very quiet, you’re talking maybe four months of the year with maybe a six or seven hours a day, that you’re not doing very much. And you can’t really drag people in the door.

“We need to bring people in. The villages needs money. You know, that’s that’s where the economy lies, I think, in the future.”

And when at the ballot box, Tom says it’ll be his shop at the forefront of his mind.

“I look for somebody that’s going to help businesses like myself, small businesses, and keep the high streets going, get people out,” he says.

This is one of the constituencies to have had its boundary lines redrawn.

Changes have now led to areas with higher levels of deprivation being added to the North East Fife seat.

Away from the picturesque coastline, further inland there are signs of a lack of investment and care.

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Glenrothes shopping centre stands partially derelict.

“That’s been like that for about six years,” someone comments, as we look on at the peeling sides of a building and faded shop signage.

This constituency has one of the highest levels of child poverty.

“People are struggling, there are a lot of people not in work,” Chris Lewis, a business owner, tells us.

Chris runs an ice cream parlour, fish and chip bar and waterfront restaurant.

“Employment is what I care about, we need to lift people back to work on a decent wage,” he says.

“I would like to see everybody getting a job, then everybody could work hard and get people off benefits.”

Chris says he has been burnt by past promises.

“This area – whether Lib Dem and SNP – to me it seems they never seem to deliver.”

Chris adds: “There’s just so many promises and you think, you’ve had your time, can someone else do more for the country. We’re a very tourist-heavy area and we can’t afford to lose that. If Scotland loses its attraction, you know, we failed.”

The national narrative and the polls are having an impact on how he is feeling.

“I never thought I’d say it, but Labour are coming to mind, I think they’re going to do more for the country than the others.

“But who do you believe? There’s always promises. And when it comes down to how many are delivered, usually very few.”

We’ve met those across this constituency who intend to back Reform, SNP and Labour throughout the day.

A sign that even the most seemingly straightforward of seats is all to play for.

The list of candidates standing in North East Fife are:

Conservatives – Bill Bowman
Liberal Democrats – Wendy Chamberlain
Labour Party – Jennifer Gallagher
SNP – Stefan Hoggan-Radu
Scottish Green Party – Morven Ovenstone-Jones
Reform UK – Matthew Wren

Politics

General election: ‘Do not give matches back to arsonists’, urges Labour amid poll complacency warning

Published

2 hours ago

June 16, 2024

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General election: 'Do not give matches back to arsonists', urges Labour amid poll complacency warning

Wes Streeting has urged voters not to hand “the matches back to the arsonists to finish the job” as he warned against complacency over polls predicting a Labour landslide.

Speaking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, the shadow health secretary stressed the choice at the election as he branded the Tory manifesto “Liz Truss’s budget on steroids” and raised the prospect of “a nightmare on Downing Street” if the governing party was returned.

Election latest

Mr Streeting made his comments as fresh polls signalled a further grim outlook for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with one indicating the Conservatives on course to pick up just 72 seats.

Meanwhile, cabinet minister Mark Harper insisted the Tories were fighting for every vote, but repeated his party’s warning that a vote for Reform UK would give Labour a large majority and “a blank cheque” in office.

It comes after a separate survey on Thursday night put Nigel Farage’s party ahead of the Tories for the first time with 19% of the vote, compared with 18% for the Conservatives.

Mr Streeting said: “I just warn people, against this backdrop of breathtaking complacency in the media about the opinion polls, do not give the matches back to the arsonist to finish the job.”

He added: “Do people want to see Liz Truss’s mini budget on steroids, which is the Conservative manifesto, being delivered if there’s a nightmare on Downing Street on 5 July or do they want to see a stable economy with economic growth, shared prosperity, enable us to invest in our public services without clobbering working people with taxes, that’s the choice at this election.”

Despite the polls, Mr Harper told Phillips: “I’m still very much up for this fight.

“The Conservative Party across the country, led by the prime minister, is fighting for every vote.”

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He added: “But the polls do tell us one thing. They do show people that if people don’t vote Conservative and some of the people vote for the smaller parties, and Labour does end up with a very large majority, they’re going to have a blank check.

“They are trying very hard in this campaign not to spell out how they’re going to pay for any of their promises. We know there is a black hole. We can have a debate about how big it is.

“We’ve said it’s going to be £2,000 for every family in the next over the parliament, but there’s definitely a black hole.

“We’ve set out the taxes that they might have to raise and they haven’t ruled them out.”

Mr Harper went on: “I’d say very simply to those voters who are thinking about voting Reform who have voted Conservative – they want to see lower taxes, they want to see migration under control, if they vote Reform they’re going to get a Labour government with a large majority and it’s going to deliver the opposite of what they want.”

Mr Harper also insisted the election was “not about the past”.

He said: “Elections are about the future. They’re about the offer in front of us.”

In his interview with Phillips, Mr Streeting also indicated there could be greater spending increases for the NHS than committed to in the Labour manifesto, but stressed this could happen “only if the conditions allow”.

He was responding to analysis by the Nuffield Trust thinktank that suggested both Labour and Tory pledges on the NHS would leave the health service with lower annual funding increases than during the austerity era.

Seizing on this, a Tory spokesman said: “Labour’s manifesto is just window dressing for the election campaign and they are planning to spend and tax more than they are telling the public.”

Politics

Gary Gensler could ‘literally cost Joe Biden the election’ — Mark Cuban

Published

3 hours ago

June 16, 2024

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Gary Gensler could ‘literally cost Joe Biden the election’ — Mark Cuban

The billionaire investor also intimated that any political aspirations Gensler had would amount to nothing due to the SEC chairman’s stance against cryptocurrency