The shadow education secretary described the Rwanda deportation plan as a ‘gimmick’
The Government is not serious about stopping illegal immigration and its Rwanda plan is just a gimmick, Labour’s shadow education secretary has claimed.
Bridget Phillipson told GB News: “It's not actually about getting serious about dealing with the cross border smuggling gangs, about making sure we are effective at tackling that, that we're cutting the backlog when it comes to asylum cases and stopping the inappropriate use of hotels.
“That's what Labour's plan involves, getting tough on the gangs and making sure we're clearing that backlog.
“It's far from clear whether the plan will have sent anyone to Rwanda because we've sent more Home Secretaries to Rwanda than we have asylum seekers.”
In a discussion with Camilla Tominey, she continued: “If it does, even if Rwanda were to be an effective intervention, even if it were to be effective, you're talking about between 100 to 200 asylum seekers. It's 1% of the backlog of claims that we're facing at the moment.
“It's just not the answer. It's a gimmick. What we need to have as a serious plan, as Labour has set out, around tackling those cases, that huge backlog of cases and ending the use of inappropriate accommodation such as hotels.”
On the resignation of Tory MP Chris Skidmore, she said: “I'm not especially interested in that, no. To be honest, I'm more interested in winning the by-election in Kingswood that they're about to have.
“That's what I'm most interested in. And we'll be fighting a really tough campaign there."
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