The government is in full panic mode.
Having wasted the first nine months of its term in office dragging his feet on immigration, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is now being forced to finally act, as small boat crossings reach record highs under his watch and costs to the taxpayer balloon to the tune of billions of pounds more.
So what’s the latest act on this never ending saga?
Well, today the prime minister, is in Albania, warming up so-called “return hubs” for illegal migrants, in his latest attempt to appear tough on immigration. The plan is to send failed asylum seekers to these “return hubs” in third countries while they’ll await deportation.
Alex Armstrong hit out at Labour on GB News
GB NEWS
The shocking reality is that 76 per cent of asylum seeker claims are granted in the United Kingdom, and migrants sitting in Calais know this. Any betting man would take those odds.
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson put it plainly, he said the plan is a “watered down rehash of the Conservatives’ failed Rwanda scheme”. And frankly I think he’s right.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said this on X: “Starmer has never cared about stopping illegal migration. He called immigration laws racist, fought deportations of foreign criminals, and dismantled every tough measure we put in place.”
“Starmer has never cared about stopping illegal migration. He called immigration laws racist, fought deportations of foreign criminals, and dismantled every tough measure we put in place.”
The Tories’ illegal migration record was no doubt a disaster - but it deserves credit on one single point. It recognised that the British public don’t want to give asylum to people who cross the channel.
The very act of crossing from France, a safe country, is an affront to the British sense of fairness we all hold.
But this government’s plan of “clearing the backlog” amounts to granting the right to stay, nearly everyone who breaks into our country.
So who is the prime minister trying to appeal to? These policies are dead on arrival, do not solve the underlying issues with our immigration system, nor do they please his left wing, nor go far enough to win over those who simply don’t believe a word he says on immigration.
It would seem to any onlooker that the government is in a total meltdown. Pleasing nobody and making empty gestures that will have little to no impact other than to waste more taxpayer cash to look tough but do nothing to change the reality.
