Shadow Crime and Policing Minister Matt Vickers has accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of resorting to a migration "smokescreen", as the Labour Government unveiled its latest crackdown on migration.
Announcing the latest White Paper to the nation, Starmer declared that the "one nation experiment" on "open borders" is "over".
Starmer said the system under the reforms will be "controlled, selective and fair" and will recognise “those who genuinely contribute to Britain’s growth and society, while restoring common sense and control to our borders."
"This is a clean break from the past and will ensure settlement in this country is a privilege that must be earned, not a right...and when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration and to learning our language."
Matt Vickers has hit out at Keir Starmer's latest white paper on migration
GB News
Criticising the policy on GB News, Conservative Minister Matt Vickers claimed the move was simply a "smokescreen" to "blow the scent off" the looming vote on the Borders Bill.
Vickers fumed: "Today is a smokescreen. When you're involved in politics, you sometimes get a little bit cynical about the way the world works, and today is one of those days.
"This afternoon we're going to be voting on the Borders Bill in Parliament, so it's a bit of a smokescreen. It covers what's going on in there this afternoon and seems to blow the press off the scent."
Warning of the dangers of the new Borders Bill, Vickers claimed that illegal migrants would be granted the ability to become "British citizens", and remove "age verification powers".
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Sir Keir Starmer was grilled by GB News's Christopher Hope on whether the Labour Government will implement a migration cap
POOLVickers told GB News: "The bill that's going through there this afternoon is going to allow illegal immigrants to become British citizens. It's going to remove our ability to force illegal migrants to undergo age verification. We're going to end up with 30-year-olds in classrooms with 13-year-olds."
When pressed by host Eamonn Holmes on whether he believes Starmer and the Labour Government will "get a handle on this at all", Vickers disagreed.
He stated: "Look at Keir Starmer - this is a man who, in the last couple of years, has voted against every single measure brought forward to toughen up our immigration system. This is a man who campaigned to see foreign criminals left in this country and prevent them being deported.
"We were sending people away on planes and he was out there campaigning against it. It's madness to think this is the man who's going to sort out the immigration system in the UK."
Vickers told GB News that it is 'madness' to think that 'Keir Starmer is the man to fix the immigration system in the UK'
GB News
Challenging Vickers, host Ellie Costello interjected the Tory minister and highlighted that the Conservatives "also couldn't sort migration out", including the Rwanda scheme that "literally didn't get off the ground".
Defending the Tories, Vickers concluded: "That is a very good point - Kemi has said previous governments let the side down, that immigration was way too high. But we've put forward a proper plan that says about deporting foreign criminals, says about discipline, and the Human Rights Act.
"The reality is that towards the end of the last government, the number of people coming across the Channel was going down, the number of people staying in hotels was going down, and we were deporting more people who were arriving by a small boat.
"Actually, if you look at what's happened since this Government came to office, the number of people arriving in this country illegally is up 41 per cent. The number staying in hotels has now gone up by 28 per cent. Record numbers now arriving in the country, and of those arriving illegally, less of them are being removed."
