My intervention to the Home Office Minister about the total cost of setting up every economic migrant upon arrival to the UK

Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): We all wish to end abusive people trafficking and the dreadful journeys across the channel. As theĀ Oppositionā€™s only idea to tackle it is to let in every economic migrant who wants to come, will theĀ MinisterĀ tell us how much it costs taxpayers in Britain to set up every economic migrant in decent circumstances when they arrive?

Tom Pursglove, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State: It is fair to say that the costs associated with this illegal migration to our country are considerable and unsustainable. That is why we have the new plan for immigration in place to get it under control and ensure that those who follow the rules and seek to come here through safe and legal means are not disadvantaged by those attempting dangerous and unnecessary crossings as we have seen. For example, we are spending nearly Ā£5 million a day on hotel accommodation in the asylum system. That cannot carry on, and that is why we must act as we are proposing.

115 Comments

  1. Shirley M
    June 15, 2022

    Sorry, but I cannot believe that the government wishes to reduce immigration, be it legal or illegal. The points system has been watered down so much it is virtually worthless. Boris has made illegal immigration as inviting as possible, by giving illegals far better benefits than legal citizens.

    The Rwanda ‘solution’ must have more holes in it than a colander, going by the numbers of court cases, UNLESS, the court cases have no merit, in which case why do they get to court? Is the Rwanda ‘solution’ intended to fail, just to pretend the government is ‘trying’ to reduce immigration?

    Importing people for low wage jobs is the road to failure. Not only do they not pay any significant taxes, but the taxpayers provides top ups. Why should the taxpayer subsidise unviable (or greedy) enterprises that cannot afford wages that attract the existing population? I hope imported foreign workers for low pay jobs are only give temporary visas restricted to that specific work only, else they will abandon that work for more lucrative jobs a.s.a.p. and the requirement to import more foreign labour starts all over again!

    1. Michelle
      June 16, 2022

      Completely agree with you Shirley and I believe this Rwanda solution to be yet another false claim of taking back control and tightening immigration.
      This government have opened up the student route in again. Allowed to stay for two years after graduating in which time they can take any job while looking for a job within their field and the ability then to change their visa status to stay here for longer………which likely as not means forever.

      1. Shirley M
        June 16, 2022

        Eventually, the Brits will be living in tents, and the immigrants will have all the social housing. The number of social houses allocated to immigrants cannot be disclosed under the freedom of information ‘as it is not in the public interest’. I would have thought it was very much in the public interest, when there are homeless Brits needing to be housed.

    2. Lifelogic
      June 16, 2022

      Much truth in this. Just more pointless hot air. Why did the minister not just answer (to what does it cost?) A lot? It would have been just as useful and informative!

  2. Everhopeful
    June 15, 2022

    ā€œThe New Planā€
    Oh??

  3. Everhopeful
    June 15, 2022

    Whatā€™s this New Plan then?

  4. Berkshire Alan
    June 15, 2022

    Ā£5 million a day just for accommodation, without all of the other associated costs.
    How much is it costing us to pay the vulture like lawyers on both sides to argue everyone’s case.
    How much in HHS time and care, how much for increasing school place capacity
    How much is spent on translators when they go to court or hospital or school.
    The list is almost endless until they can support themselves (if ever).
    We truly must be the laughing stock of the World, will there ever be an end to funding and pandering to this criminal behaviour.

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2022

      Best this government perpare for ‘Opposition’

    2. rose
      June 15, 2022

      Translators. Yes, that is an important point. How often are we told they come here from France and Belgium for the English language?

    3. Your comment is awaiting moderation
      June 15, 2022

      +1

    4. Mickey Taking
      June 15, 2022

      Australia recognised the traps and took positive action. But Australian governments look after their own.

      1. glen cullen
        June 16, 2022

        Correct…..and fear mass uncontrolled immigrantion

  5. agricola
    June 15, 2022

    An indicative answer, but when RN, RNLI, & BF costs are added, plus of course all the legal costs claimed by a legal profession aiding and abetting the crimes associated with this illegal economic migration, I would not begin to arrive at the real per capita cost. The sooner the Rwanda shuttle is seen to be up and running the faster will the Channel gauntlet be seen to be a bad option.

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2022

      The French know where the illegal immigrants came from, the lawyers know where they came from, all of government and the people of the UK know where they came fromā€¦..why canā€™t we just send them back ā€“ and sanction the French if they donā€™t except them back

      1. Peter Parsons
        June 16, 2022

        In order to send people back to France, there needs to be an agreement in place. There used to be one – the Dublin Agreement – but Brexit meant that the UK is no longer a part of it.

        1. glen cullen
          June 16, 2022

          Incorrect – When we return someone on a flight or ferry due to incorrect visa we don’t have arrangements with every other country of the world – we just return them from whence they came by the next available transport

          1. hefner
            June 17, 2022

            gc, what you say is not true: whether one takes the Eurostar from Paris or Brussels, the Eurotunnel from Calais, a direct plane flight to the UK from anywhere in the word, or a ferry starting from any European port going to the UK, their ID/passport (and possible visa) is checked before one is travelling. This means that very very few people travelling by common means of transport are likely ā€˜to be returned from whence they came by next available transportā€™. It happens only when there has been a deficient check at the starting point of their travel to Britain or if they are on a list of previously known dangerous individuals, in which case they are likely to be stopped at the border entering the UK.

            Thatā€™s why the majority of illegal immigrants do not use the usual means of transport, or if they do they have a proper document allowing them to enter the country at least for some length of time (eg, as tourist). Whether they overstay their visa is a completely different question. In which case those would not be put ā€˜in the next available transportā€™.

            Do you ever check before writing?

        2. rose
          June 17, 2022

          Remainiac propaganda. The Dublin Agreement wasn’t working when we were in the EU . Frau Merkel drove the final stake through it in 2015.

  6. The Prangwizard
    June 15, 2022

    There’s nothing much any of us can say to the level of government and in particular leadership and cabinet incompetence, ignorance, naivete and weakness.

    Gentlemany diversionary questions are just worthless but will remain modest and unthreatening because it matters not one jot to Tories how ruined in reputation, authority and governace the country becomes. The bricks of our country structure are falling around us all.

    The Tory party must be destroyed for our country to be saved.

    1. Peter
      June 15, 2022

      Prangwizard,

      Fielding awkward questions in Parliament with answers that reveal nothing seems to be standard practice. The alternative is answering planted questions in a way that makes government look good.

      I agree that the Tory party should go the way of The Whigs. They have had a long run.

    2. Jim Whitehead
      June 17, 2022

      G.C. and Prangwizard, +1, I will take great pleasure in seeing the demise and humiliation of this once worthwhile party. What might follow could be many degrees worse but Iā€™m past caring about that. First things first.

  7. Lifelogic
    June 15, 2022

    So when exactly are this government actually going to act beyond hot air? Why are we still in the ECHR why zero movement on this?

    440+ boat people yesterday doubtless with their families of say another 3,000 or so to join them later. Still in PM questions just now Boris is talking total B/S about decarbonising and protecting energy intensive industries in places like Dudley. Grow up man and stop listening to your deluded green crap pushing theatre studies graduate wife!

    1. Peter Parsons
      June 15, 2022

      The ECHR was something the UK played a major role in creating in the early 1950s with Winston Churchill being a significant player.

      The ECHR also underpins the Good Friday Agreement. It is explicitly stated in the Good Friday Agreement that the ECHR be directly enforceable in Northern Ireland. If the UK leaves the Council of Europe and the ECHR, the UK also breaks the Good Friday Agreement.

      1. a-tracy
        June 16, 2022

        The UK representative in the ECHR is a German man.
        They can overrule an idea the EU itself had.
        They have done a great disservice to Rwanda and the people of Rwanda to put it in such a poor light around the world.

        Perhaps the ECHR should concentrate its efforts on sorting out Syria and these other regimes that people are fleeing from.

        1. Dennis
          June 16, 2022

          Why can’t the ECHR force France to house their homeless immigrants in hotels. Living on waste ground deprives them of human rights, no?

          To help with the cost of housing immigrants in UK hotels why not encourage the boat people to forget the rubber boats and go to the ferries, pay the fare and give the 2000 Euros, or what ever the smuggler rate is, to a govt. official on board. So they get a safe passage and money to help with their hotel bills.

          Or, as Ā£5m/day is nearly Ā£2b a year why not say to the smugglers, ‘drop your tedious migrant smuggling business and enjoy yourselves on the Cote d’Azur with the Ā£1b/year we will give you.’ So saving Ā£1bn.

          As I think that a simple shop lifter in France will be quickly apprehended but many in a vast financial smuggling business which needs the buying of boats and engines (they don’t make them I suppose) and contact with them must be easy for the customers (and undercover police) without a single arrest it appears to me that the whole enterprise must be protected by the police and the French govt.

          1. a-tracy
            June 19, 2022

            Well exactly Dennis we are being played for fools. They know exactly who is making these boats, who they are selling them to and its orchestrated to ensure the UK gets its share of the migrants. We should process migrants much faster than we do but when you see the speed of a passport application renewal when the person provides the photo and all the details what hope is there for anything public sector to get done fast and efficiently especially when we are told these people throw their phones and identities overboard. The authorities can certainly find out who they are and where they come from if they perform an atrocity on British soil so donā€™t tell me they donā€™t know who they are.

        2. Peter Parsons
          June 16, 2022

          The ECHR only applies to the member states of the Council of Europe. Syria isn’t one, so your suggestion is impossible.

          The Strasbourg Court hasn’t done any disservice to Rwanda, only to the UK government who pressed ahead with a policy before receiving the outcome of a UK judicial review as to whether its actions are actually lawful or not. All the Strasbourg Court has done is say that the UK government has to await the outcome of UK legal process.

          1. a-tracy
            June 16, 2022

            Peter the Strasbourg Court has sullied the reputation of Rwanda, it has made out that people would be mistreated there. That is a disservice in my opinion, why not have a trial for one month? Iā€™m sure theyā€™d be keeping an eye on the situation.

            I read that three UK courts agreed to it, the government had an 80 seat mandate to sort the situation out, no-one wants to get their hands dirty with this one so put it to a vote of the British public.

            It is amazing that despot regimes are just ignored by the UN and other international bodies, The UK gets involved in trying to protect and save persecuted people and we later get condemned for it and treated as though Boris was Assad.

          2. a-tracy
            June 16, 2022

            one more question Peter, Russia is in the ECHR isnā€™ it, so what are all these judges doing about that?

        3. hefner
          June 16, 2022

          Tim Eicke was born in Germany but he is British. In case you do not know (or have forgotten) there have been some Brits in Germany since WWII (might that explain why his family was staying there when he was born?)
          He got his LLB from U.Dundee, worked as a barrister in the UK for 17 years. He was nominated by some Michael Gove to the ECHR in 2016 after having been in the Queenā€™s Councel for five years (2011-2016).

          1. mancunius
            June 16, 2022

            Eicke has always withheld details of his parentage, but we know he
            is German born, has always had German nationality, had German secondary education, passed his Abitur, studied German law at Passau University, then came to this country and studied Scots & English law at Dundee. He was not selected for the ECHR by the UK government, but by a vote by the Council of Europe.
            I was amused to read that the Guardian airily implied his ‘excellent German’ was a wondrous postgraduate accomplaishment, writing that he “studied English law at Dundee University and German law at Passau University”. (One always has to admire the uardian for the subtle wording of its propaganda. )

          2. hefner
            June 17, 2022

            Russia announced its decision to leave the Council of Europe and the ECHR on 15 March 2022.

          3. a-tracy
            June 17, 2022

            Michael Gove has betrayed England several times, he has no reputation left with me. To me he is like an undercover agent to thwart England at every turn so I’m not at all surprised he proposed a pro-EU German man to the job.

      2. Lifelogic
        June 16, 2022

        Indeed the Good Friday Agreement which is now allowing the EU to do such evil harm to the UK and NI.

        Did Blair do anything good for the country in his 10 years? A man with the reverse of the Midas Touch idiotic & losing war on lies, botched devolution, Brown’s insane economic and fiscal policies, buggering up the UK legal system, ever more EU and EU red tape… The man left even more botched disasters and sewerage behind as the “there will be no loss of Sovereignty” liar Ted Heath.

        1. hefnerh
          June 18, 2022

          a-t, Iā€™m sure Michael Gove must feel very aggrieved at having lost your support.

          1. a-tracy
            June 19, 2022

            Perhaps I need to say it more often and louder so he gets my message hefner. He isnā€™t levelling up, he has shot England in the foot, he needs to get into fifth gear and give the English their EVEL (English votes for devolved issues)

  8. Bill B.
    June 15, 2022

    Pursglove didn’t answer your question. But he’s admitted that on current rate of spending we’re blowing the best part of Ā£2bn a year on accommodating economic migrants. And that’s without considering any other costs.

    I don’t remember this being part of the ‘Australian points system’ pledge that your government MPs were elected on.

    1. Lifelogic
      June 15, 2022

      +1

    2. glen cullen
      June 15, 2022

      No visa – Just return them on next ferry back to France

    3. Mickey Taking
      June 15, 2022

      you missed a word – — illegal economic migrants

  9. formula57
    June 15, 2022

    Perhaps the Minister could answer properly? Would he be more comfortable if asked only to agree with the Evil Empire produced figure of a few years ago of EUR250,000?

    (So with this Government allowing in 444 dinghy people yesterday, that is an extra c. Ā£96 million that the Bank can conjure out of nothing for H.M. Treasury, an annualized figure of c. Ā£34.9 billion before non-economic costs. Well done Mrs. Patel!)

  10. Sea_Warrior
    June 15, 2022

    Even a Ā£1 cost is unacceptable to this voter. An ‘economic migrant’ should receive nothing other than an NI number.

  11. Narrow Shoulders
    June 15, 2022

    Why do we have to put these people up in hotels?

    What is wrong with detention centres?

    Is this another fabricated human rights issue. I would expect anyone fleeing persecution to be grateful for wherever they end up. Camps on the borders of war torn countries have fewer amenities than detention centres but are allowed. Why can’t we run detention centres?

    Every single pull factor has to be mitigated so that only the genuine can be bothered.

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2022

      This government and its woke Tory MPs caved in to the left wing lobby groups that said UK military camps where substandard to the little angels (teenage men)

    2. Dave Andrews
      June 15, 2022

      In many cases they should just be shipped back to their own country.
      Outnumbered Ukrainians are fighting for their country, whilst for every Taliban 30 Afghans are running away from him.
      About time some people grew a backbone and stood up for themselves.

      1. Mitchel
        June 16, 2022

        Are the Ukrainians outnumbered?

        Afghanistan has had it’s reserves frozen whereas Ukraine is getting enormous economic support from the West in this proxy war.

    3. Mickey Taking
      June 15, 2022

      send to the Outer Hebrides?

    4. Bill B.
      June 15, 2022

      Err… ‘criminal trafficking’ is I suppose the answer, SM. The main industry there, I believe.

    5. Hat man
      June 15, 2022

      Why can’t we put them in detention centres? Because, as our friend the Notts lad would tell us, we can’t find a way of charging them with an offence. And we can’t imprison people without charge (unless they’re journalists such as Julian Assange, naturally).

      1. Narrow Shoulders
        June 16, 2022

        arriving illegally is a crime.

        Government is good at changing names to achieve its aims. Holding Centres, Internment centres, refugee camps, or holding camps.

        It’s not difficult if there is a will.

    6. Cynic
      June 16, 2022

      This government ignored our human rights during two years of lockdowns which included arbitrary House arrest!!

    7. Dennis
      June 16, 2022

      ‘Why do we have to put these people up in hotels?’ So the govt. has no need to supply beds, sheets etc., hot water and toilets. It’s much easier to pay someone else to do the work. Does the hotel pay back some money to the govt in VAT on the hotel rates so that should give a 20% discount.

      1. a-tracy
        June 16, 2022

        Good point Dennis, the government would also get back corporation tax from British hotels, employerā€™s and employeeā€™s NI, VAT from all the hotel suppliers. Through covid most of these hotels would have gone bankrupt without the government putting migrants in them, now they have become dependence they on this easy trade.

  12. No Longer Anonymous
    June 15, 2022

    A minority want open borders that that’s what we have. Except for the people we really need.

    This is rub-our-noses in it time.

  13. Maylor
    June 15, 2022

    As Sir John says, ” As the Oppositionā€™s only idea to tackle it is to let in every economic migrant who wants to come, will the Minister tell us how much it costs taxpayers in Britain to set up every economic migrant in decent circumstances when they arrive?”

    I have never seen any details of an alternative to the Rwanda scheme, nor any limits on the number of migrants that the UK could sustain/support financially and with the necessary services.

    We need to look after our own sick and vulnerable in these inflationary times. It goes without saying that to do anything else will cost the government the next election. I could accept that – if only there was a viable alternative, which there is not.

    1. Peter Parsons
      June 15, 2022

      One alternative to the Rwanda scheme would be to allow asylum claims to be made at any UK Embassy or Consulate.

      That way people wouldn’t have to risk the Channel crossing in order to get onto UK soil (which is the only place that it is currently possible to make a claim from, hence why they do what they currently do) in order to make their claim.

      1. Iain Moore
        June 16, 2022

        And how many 10’s of millions of people would rush to our embassies to apply for asylum ? People proposing this are advocating open borders, just hiding the agenda by giving it a different label.

        1. Peter Parsons
          June 16, 2022

          Submitting an application doesn’t guarantee that it will be successful.

          1. a-tracy
            June 17, 2022

            Peter, and then what those that fail just float here in a dinghy anyway. Double the trouble, double the cost for no gain at all.

    2. Dennis
      June 16, 2022

      ‘I have never seen any details of an alternative to the Rwanda scheme,..’

      See my comments above if it is ever published.
      Re the Rwanda scheme – in all the relentless discussion in MSM never has it been said that if it works, soon after it starts, there will be no more flights there as the boats will stop coming. Everyone thinks thousands of people will be transported there – I hope it works out differently.

  14. glen cullen
    June 15, 2022

    Has anybody tried to sent the illegal immigrants back to France ? Asking on behalf of every Tory voter at the last election

    1. Everhopeful
      June 15, 2022

      Govt. should just come clean.
      We can do NOTHING about it while we are subject to the ECHR
      Yesterday ECHR overruled our Supreme Court!!
      Will the govt. allow that?
      If so ..how many more millions are going to come? And what will be the cost?
      Ā£5000 a dayā€¦Ā£10000 a day.. Ā£millions a dayā€¦?

      1. Donna
        June 15, 2022

        Johnson hasn’t got the cojones to take on the Human Rights Brigade, BBC etc …… and around half of “his” MPs are really LibDems in the wrong party and don’t support him anyway.

        So nothing will happen. Blair used his 10 years to ensure that the UK would permanently be a Socialist State and the CONs will do nothing to change that.

      2. glen cullen
        June 15, 2022

        Is there a test case….have we tried to return one to France

      3. Dennis
        June 16, 2022

        One could argue that the ECHR did not stop the flight ‘cos of one man but just pointed out that his case was still pending in a British court so it was British law that prevented his deportation.

        It seems that the ECHR is not responsible for putting migrants into hotels as they would do the same for France, wouldn’t they?

    2. a-tracy
      June 15, 2022

      Glen, George Osborne interviewed today said its quite simple we should trot along to ā€˜the French and have a proper agreement agreement on the policing of the Channelā€™ or la Manche if youā€™re speaking to the French lol.

      I wonder if we could buy an old cruise boat, anchor it in international waters and get the RNLI to take the asylum seekers to process there on that boat using Foreign Aid to fund it all. Do Gooders could volunteer to staff the boat for a fortnight at a time, the asylum seekers themselves could cook and clean for themselves. Solicitor supporters could donate a fortnight of their time to process the applications.

    3. Peter Parsons
      June 15, 2022

      No longer possible as a result of Brexit.

      1. glen cullen
        June 16, 2022

        Yes it is
        We just ask the French….if they say no we stop the boat mid channel and stop french fishing in our area

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          June 16, 2022

          Do you remember Operation Stack, and the tiny matter which sparked that?

          Read up, Glen, and try to remember what you have read for once.

          1. glen cullen
            June 16, 2022

            You mean capitulate and appease the Frenchā€¦..weā€™ve been doing that since the 70s

      2. a-tracy
        June 16, 2022

        Ah so that’s what they’re up to, trying to prove Brexit has caused the French to allow criminals to blow up boats on their shore and send them our way.

        1. Peter Parsons
          June 16, 2022

          No longer possible because the UK removed itself from the Dublin Agreement.

          1. a-tracy
            June 16, 2022

            I thought we paid the French millions to not facilitate this, instead they are just trying to palm their problem on to us as they prefer leaving these people in tents in mud, in office buildings and underpasses and get away with it.

        2. hefner
          June 18, 2022

          The UK paid between Ā£100 m and Ā£150 m over three years essentially to secure the Coquelles (Calais) of the Eurotunnel. It resulted in kilometres (8.5 km) of double four metre fencing, CCTV cameras and other detection systems around the car- and the lorry- terminals there. This plus the enforcement of a Ā£2000 fine per illegal migrant found by the border agency (the British customs officers in Coquelles) to be paid by the driver or the company employing him/her have reduced to very little the number of attempts to cross the Channel by lorries.

          The traffic then moved to dinghies. Here as told several times by French officials there are about 130 km of beaches to monitor, from the border with Belgium near Dunkirk to the Baie de Somme. It was pointed out that it would require patrols with police officers every half- to one kilometre, at least 500 officers (3 over 24 hour at about 170 potential starting points) only affected to that particular task.
          Once Javid was replaced by Patel in July 2019 discussions between British and French became very tense as Patel is more interested in the titles she was getting in some of the press than in getting things done, and very little was achieved by her apart bad blood between the two sides.
          So maybe you could direct your anger either to her personally as she does not seem to have been an efficient minister in any position she has had up to now, or to her faithful readers in the Express, Sun and Mail who might be the reason she is so poor at getting results.

          A bit like JR-M asking Sun readers for Brexit Opportunities and coming up with his nine wonderful ā€˜ideasā€™.

          1. a-tracy
            June 19, 2022

            If you want to read some Brexit opportunities I would direct you to Robert Kimbell on twitter or Gully Foyle. Re-shoring of factories and jobs for British people from Heinz to Cadburys. This is even with this Tory government strangling business with extra costs right now, slowing down productivity with poor highways (on Friday there was an overturned lorry at 2am in the morning it was still closed at 6pm the M6 for 4 junctions completely log jammed all journeys up to Scotland).

  15. Bloke
    June 15, 2022

    One way to gain more effective support for the remedy would be to send every citizen a hotel bill for the Ā£30 or more they are having to pay to support such crazy wastes of money.

    Hotels are just one expense at the start. Total costs are far higher.

  16. Nottingham Lad Himself
    June 15, 2022

    According to an extensive 2016 study, fraud alone costs the UK Ā£193 billion a year under the Tories, never mind the rest of crime.

    However, you’d rather that your voters fixated endlessly on a mere hundredth of that, which hotel accommodation costs for asylum claimants.

    Your newspapers naturally indulge your wish, and the country remains in the mess that it is as a result.

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2022

      Sounds a bit like deflection ā€“ with the 400,000+ civil servants, 650 MPs and 20,000 extra police (manifesto pledge) I sure both fraud and illegal immigrants can be sorted at the same timeā€¦ā€¦.just not by this government

    2. Peter2
      June 15, 2022

      More ridiculous whataboutery from NHL
      What is you strategy to eliminate all fraud and crime?
      Should we not do anything until your diversionary obsession is achieved?

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      June 15, 2022

      I wonder how much fraud has been committed by migrants who came here illegally. They certainly seem over represented in the prison populations.

      1. a-tracy
        June 16, 2022

        I’ve always wondered this about foreign prisoners, don’t their home Countries have to incarcerate them? I read that Maxwell was trying to serve her sentence in the UK.

  17. SM
    June 15, 2022

    It was mentioned in a news report that one of the proposed ‘refugees’ to be sent to Rwanda was an Albanian. Could someone tell me what is happening in Albania that would transform a migrant into a ‘refugee’ requiring travel organised by criminal traffickers?

    1. Dennis
      June 16, 2022

      ‘…was an Albanian.’ In itself not revealing. He could have been living in Syria or Afghanistan with his wife and children there and had to get out and the Abanian govt refused him entry due to his backgound.

      Yes, very unlikely but details are needed.

  18. lewis
    June 15, 2022

    The partnership with Rwanda is an imaginative idea and we are more likely to be able to help more migrants start their lives over in a warm and safe place. We must think about the cost of this process and this partnership achieves so much without compromising the hope for migrants. Thank you Mr Redwood for raising this question. Stay blessed

  19. Will in Hampshire
    June 15, 2022

    Extraordinary scenes – in just one day leaving the ECHR goes from the stuff of sleepy academic seminars to the core of the next Tory manifesto.

    I suppose one should applaud the judges involved for studiously ignoring the politics and focusing on applying the letter of the convention to the case in front of them.

  20. Donna
    June 15, 2022

    So for a start, why isn’t the Government stopping the legal aid scam which is enriching the lefty activist lawyers who are attempting to create a borderless UK by using the HRA/ECHR to prevent any deportations?

    This really is a useless “do nothing except talk tough” Government.

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2022

      Agree – and why have illegal immigrants selected for deportation, got mobile phones (at taxpayers ex) calling the BBC

    2. Dennis
      June 16, 2022

      Donna – I thought legal aid was stopped, for the British anyway – am I wrong?

  21. KB
    June 15, 2022

    The hotel bill is the tip of the iceberg. That reply was more hot air meaningless waffle as usual.
    The minute anyone sets foot in the UK they take a share worth many Ā£100k’s of infrastructure and service development, which has taken centuries to get to this point. To which they have not contributed one penny, unlike the native population and our ancestors.
    None of the models on the economic effect of immigration take this into account.

  22. Fedupsoutherner
    June 15, 2022

    How come immigrants are allowed to live in tents in France but hotels here in the UK? Why isn’t France being hauled before the courts? How much of our council tax is funding these so called charities who are costing us a fortune in lawyers fees? Apparently many countries are signed up to the ECHR but they cherry pick the things they want to take notice of. Stupid us dot all the i’s and cross all the T’s. For God sake someone in your party grow some and get our laws changed. One single judge somewhere in Europe has overturned our judicial system. This government is pathetic.

    1. a-tracy
      June 16, 2022

      https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2020-migration-bulletin-4_en.pdf

      Ministry of Migration toothless and take no action. France’s response was to facilitate inflatable dinghies. This is being done with full French compliance.

      1. Dennis
        June 16, 2022

        a-tracy – ‘This is being done with full French compliance.’ Yes it does seem so as there has been not a single arrest of the smugglers altho it must be easy to infiltrate the group of such a large organisation and see how the boats and engines are delivered and paid for. It would seem that they are protected, with bribes or what?

  23. Fedupsoutherner
    June 15, 2022

    It is estimated that there are 6000 veterans who are homeless. Fair enough they are not all sleeping rough but they do not have a permanent residence. What are we doing when we look after others first? My brother could have been one of these men. His RAF Base closed down and he thought he would be moving with his wife into the in laws home. The day before they went she told him she was leaving him. I got a phone call from him on Victoria station saying he had nowhere to go.

    1. Ed M
      June 16, 2022

      It is also an issue of Patriotism.
      Those who work in the armed forces risk their lives. The ultimate sacrifice.

      1. Ed M
        June 16, 2022

        (the ultimate sacrifice for one’s country i meant)

  24. Mark B
    June 15, 2022

    Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Tom Pursglove – Is he the new Blackadder ?

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2022

      He’s all talk

  25. SM
    June 15, 2022

    I have another serious question for the Home Office: surely everyone in Westminster and outside it knew the Rwanda plan would kick up any amount of protest that would be backed by legal action.

    Were any serious bright legal specialists enlisted to ensure the action would be judicially waterproof? Were any safeguards introduced to counteract reference to the ECHR? It appears not.

    1. Dennis
      June 16, 2022

      SM – good point never mentioned on MSM, AFAIK. Shows how incompetent the UK lawyers are. How did someone abroad in a few minutes come up with a legal fact to stop the flight?

  26. glen cullen
    June 15, 2022

    So the two main reasons why this government and Boris won the last general election 2019 where Brexit and Immigrationā€¦. neither is fixed two and a half years later

  27. Mickey Taking
    June 15, 2022

    Rwanda has been paying Ā£10m per year to Arsenal FC to promote ‘Visit Rwanda’ it’s on their shirts !!!!
    I doubt American owned AFC would be happy to have this promotion/sponsor if it was dangerous/wartorn/ in extreme poverty …. but then.

    1. a-tracy
      June 16, 2022

      Exactly MT. The disservice the EHIC have done to Rwanda is immense. If the true reason the boat mean are coming here is because they are fearing for their life then hotel Rwanda is better than where they came from.

  28. Iain Gill
    June 15, 2022

    the Conservative party has a long track record of saying one thing in public about immigration, while pulling the levers of power in completely different direction behind closed doors when in power

    as Ms May proved with “down to the tens of thousands”

    this is all much the same

    the underlying problem of the human rights conventions and laws giving too much weight to an individual asylum seekers problems, and totally inadequate weight to the problems of the existing population being swamped by newcomers, is too scary for the poor darlings in parliament to deal with.

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2022

      In our hosts own words ‘we don’t believe you’

      1. glen cullen
        June 15, 2022

        The ‘you’ being the government and not Iain

  29. glen cullen
    June 15, 2022

    BBC reporting that Lil Wayne a USA rapper has been denied entry into the UK, due to prior criminal conviction, and a visa was not issuedā€¦.. how many illegal immigrants crossing the channel have criminal records ā€“ this country is pathetic

    1. Sea_Warrior
      June 16, 2022

      Rap-music is reason enough.

      1. glen cullen
        June 16, 2022

        Quite so

  30. X-Tory
    June 15, 2022

    Boris the Traitor has NO INTENTION of doing anything to reduce illegal immigration. He has been told many times that nothing can be achieved unless we ban any human rights claims, but he refuses to do this. He even included the UK’s membership of the ECHR in the EU TCA! The man is as woke as hell. The fact is that leaving the ECHR will not be enough: the British courts prevented the deportation of most of the illegals the other day, even before the ECHR stopped the flight taking off at all. We need a new law that excludes anyone here irregularly from being able to make any human rights claims. Will Boris the Traitor do this? No chance.

  31. Maylor
    June 16, 2022

    Tony Abbott, ex PM Australia now works for the UK Board of Trade but I think he would be more useful as an advisor on immigration matters since the Australians seem to have dealt with their illegal immigration problems.

  32. Original Richard
    June 16, 2022

    It’s not of course just the economic cost of massive immigration.

    It is also the social costs to our cohesion as a nation.

    It should not be assumed that economic migrants are automatically also cultural migrants.

  33. Iago
    June 16, 2022

    There is the other quite fundamental cost, which is the end of our society, a feature of which was that a woman or a man could walk freely along a street. The MP for Linton on Ouse describes the inhabitants as now being panic-stricken. The government is not stopping its invasion, either across the Channel or, legally with visas, at the airports, because it does not intend to do so.

    1. Dennis
      June 16, 2022

      The Linton on Ouse won’t be a problem as I think that the immigrants will not stay for more than a few minutes and will high tail out of the base on their way to London and other cities.

  34. Paul Cuthbertson
    June 18, 2022

    There has NEVER been any intention to curb illegal immigration, it is all part of the Globalist UK Establishment plan. The people are irrelevant. Forget the Rwanda waffle, that is just a another false flag.

  35. a-tracy
    June 20, 2022

    Perhaps your government should ask these cruise lines with space for 9000-passenger ships going to the scrapyard how much they would cost to rent for a couple of years whilst you deal with the backlog of asylum seekers.

    Global Dream II.

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