Rishi Sunak vows to stop small boat crossings: ‘If you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay’
The prime minister is set to announce new laws to clamp down on migrant crossings – telling those who arrive on small boats: “If you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.”
Speaking to the Sunday Express, Rishi Sunak said he and senior aides at the Home Office have drawn up new laws to stop lawyers using the right to family life and legislation created to combat modern slavery to stop their clients being deported.
“I have made the issue of illegal migration one of my top five priorities – pledging to stop the boats once and for all,” he said.
“Illegal migration is not fair on British taxpayers, it is not fair on those who come here legally and it is not right that criminal gangs should be allowed to continue their immoral trade.
“I’m determined to deliver on my promise to stop the boats.
“So make no mistake, if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.”
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote in the Sun on Sunday: “Enough is enough. The British people want this solved. They’re sick of tough talk and inadequate action. We must stop the boats.
“That’s why myself and the prime minister have been working flat out to bring forward necessary and effective laws which will tackle this problem, once and for all,” Ms Braverman wrote.
Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman. Pic: UK government
“It has to be that if you come here illegally you will be detained and swiftly removed. Our laws will be simple in their intention and practice – the only route to the UK will be a safe and legal route.
“So far, Labour has opposed every effort to bring a stop to illegal migration. They are not serious about tackling the issue that is only becoming ever more serious and allows criminal gangs to exploit vulnerable people.
“The prime minister and I will do whatever it takes. You can judge us by our actions.”
A new law that aims to reduce the number of small boats crossing the Channel is expected to be announced on Tuesday.
The legislation is expected to ban asylum claims from migrants who travelled to the UK on small boats.
The law would give powers to the home secretary to remove anyone who arrives on a small boat “as soon as reasonably practicable” to Rwanda or a “safe third country”.
Read more:
Rishi Sunak plans to ban Channel migrants from appealing deportation
Arrivals would be prevented from claiming asylum while in the UK and stopped from returning once removed.
Ms Braverman is expected to unveil the plan on Tuesday after Mr Sunak made “stopping the boats” one of his five priorities.
The pair are also due to travel to Paris on Friday for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Christina Marriott, executive director of strategy at the Red Cross, called the legislation “extremely concerning”.
“The Home Office knows from its own research that this will also do little to prevent people risking their lives to seek safety,” she said.
“Again and again, we hear from people that they have no prior knowledge of the UK’s asylum system, so making it harsher is not an effective strategy.”
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A Sky News team has witnessed chaotic scenes in Calais
Sonya Sceats, chief executive at Freedom from Torture, called the proposals “vindictive and dysfunctional”.
“This legislation will do nothing to reduce the number of deaths in the Channel or the chaos and incompetence that blights our asylum system, nor will it guarantee sanctuary for those who need it,” she said.
“Instead, it will lead to more torture survivors being unfairly denied protection and potentially removed to Rwanda.”
Read more:
PM set to launch crackdown on asylum seeker backlog with questionnaire
Migrants waiting to cross the Channel not deterred by recent deaths
Home Office figures show 2,950 migrants have crossed the Channel in 2023 so far.
The government’s most recent policy aimed to prevent migrants from coming to the UK has been mired in controversy.
The Rwanda scheme is subject to several legal challenges. No flights taking migrants to the country have departed.
UK
Mohamed al Fayed: Former royal security head says he warned Royal Family before Diana went on holiday with businessman
The former head of royal protection says he warned the Royal Family about Mohamed al Fayed’s reputation before Princess Diana took her sons on holiday with him.
The former Harrods owner, who died last year at the age of 94, was described as a “monster” earlier this week by lawyers representing 37 alleged sexual abuse victims.
The women say he raped and sexually assaulted them while they worked at the luxury department store, prowling the shop floor and “cherry-picking” women to be brought to his executive suite.
Now, Mr Davies says people were aware of the Egyptian businessman’s reputation as far back as the 1990s, and that he raised concerns about him to the Royal Family.
Princess Diana on the quay of the residence of Mohamed al Fayed in Saint Tropez on 20 July 1997. File pic: AP
“This was a man who I would be concerned [about] if a relative of mine was going on holiday with him, let alone the future king and his brother and their mother, Princess Diana,” Dai Davies told Sky News.
Mohamed al Fayed during a match at Craven Cottage stadium in 2013: File pic: PA
In July 1997, a month before she died, Princess Diana went on holiday with Fayed and his wife to their residence in St Tropez.
She took the two young princes with her – a holiday Prince Harry described as “heaven” in his 2023 memoir Spare.
“I was horrified because I was aware of some of the allegations even then that were going around,” said Mr Davies.
“I was aware that he had tried very hard to ingratiate himself with the Royal Family and obviously knowing, as I did, the reputation he was alleged [to have] then, I was concerned, and I took the opportunity to inform the Royal Family.”
Princess Diana, Prince William (right) and Prince Harry (left) in Saint Tropez on 14 July 1997. File pic: AP
Mr Davies says he was told: “Her Majesty is aware.”
“The rest is history,” he said.
Buckingham Palace told Sky News it had no comment on the allegations.
Fulham ‘deeply disturbed’ by allegations
Fulham FC, a football club that was owned by Fayed between 1997 and 2013, has said it is “deeply troubled” by the dozens of “disturbing” sexual abuse allegations against the businessman.
The Premier League club also said it is “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected” by this alleged behaviour.
Mohamed al Fayed waves a Fulham scarf in front of supporters in 2012. Pic: Reuters
However, Gaute Haugenes, who managed the club’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC extra precautions were taken to protect female players from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur. We protected the players.”
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‘The door was locked behind me’
A former Harrods employee told Sky News she was summoned to Fayed’s apartment when she began working for the department store at 19 years old.
She was told the meeting was a “job review” before “the door was locked behind me”.
“I saw his bedroom door partially open – there were sex toys on view,” she said.
“I felt petrified. I perched myself at the very end of the sofa and then… my boss, the person I worked for, pushed himself onto me.”
Read more: ‘One of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation’
Harrods said in a statement on Thursday it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.
The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees said they aimed to seek justice for the victims of a “vast web of abuse”.
Lily Allen says she had her children “for all the wrong reasons,” at a “high pressure” point in her career when she felt “overwhelmed”.
The singer and actress had her two daughters, Marnie, 12 and Ethel, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper when she was in her mid-20s.
By the time she became a mum, she’d already had hit singles including Smile and The Fear, released two studio albums and received a Brit Award for best British female solo artist.
Speaking about motherhood on the BBC podcast Miss Me?, which Allen hosts with her long-time friend Miquita Oliver, she said: “I think I had children for all the wrong reasons, really.
“Because I was yearning for unconditional love, which I haven’t felt in my life since I was a child.”
The now 39-year-old star added: “And also, my career was at such high speed, high pressure, and I felt like very overwhelmed by what was happening. I just didn’t get much respite you know?
“And I felt like the only way to stop people hassling me was to say, ‘It’s not about me, actually this is about this other person that’s inside me’.
When asked by Oliver if it worked, Allen says: “Yeah, they did leave me alone. I don’t think I really understood what was happening, what I got myself into.”
The daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, she went on to discuss her own childhood.
“My mum, bless her, had children really early as well, and she really struggled. But she doesn’t really talk about the struggle. And so… She inadvertently gaslit me into thinking it was, you know, easy.
“You just sort of throw the kid over your shoulder and you get on with it.
“Her job was very static, and in one place and went to an office and mine wasn’t like that at all. It wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t easy.”
Allen is married to Stranger Things star David Harbour
The ‘nasty scars’ caused by absent parents
Allen previously told the Radio Times podcast that while she loves her children, having them “ruined her career”.
She said her decision to prioritise them over her pop career was a decision she made so as not to inflict the “nasty scars” of being an “absent” parent onto them.
She also said the myth of having it all “really annoyed” as it simply was not true.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Allen, whose younger brother is Game Of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, married Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2020.
Away from her music career, Allen has branched out into acting over the last few years, starring in two plays in London’s West End, and winning a role in Sky drama Dreamland last year.
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