Stopping the small boats

I am pleased to report one of the hotels being used for migrants in my constituency will be vacated by the Home Office soon. The Minister reported progress with stemming the flow. He argued that it was not fair that groups of young men sought to circumvent the legal ways of entry and to take more of the places available for asylum seekers by refusing to use the legal channels.

He was able to tell us that numbersĀ  crossing from the continent are down by a fifth this year compared to last. The French authorities have co-operated more in stopping boats from departing French shores. The new arrangements with Albania have stopped most of the flow from there and have enables the return of many to that safe country. The government awaits the result of the appeal to the Supreme Court over sending people to Rwanda who seek illegal entry to the UK. The processing of claims has been improved.

They have intensified work to find, charge and prosecute the illegal gangs operating the boats.Ā  It is good there has been some progress but clearly more is needed by pursuing all these options, and processing claims more rapidly.

141 Comments

  1. Michelle
    October 25, 2023

    I would like to apologise for sounding negative on this, but I’m afraid I can’t.
    This has all come at immense cost to this country and its people in more ways than just financially.
    Both political parties have ensured this reached crisis point.
    I have no faith in the speeding up of claims, as I suspect it means more waived through to clear the backlog.
    In effect an amnesty. No doubt a future Labour government will lower the criteria for entry, and set up a turnstile at all ports around the world, no documents required.

    The fact that we as a country have had to bribe and beg other nations to keep their promises to help stop the flow, and other nations to take responsibility for their own people, is a damning indictment of this nation and those entrusted to run its affairs.

    1. DOMINIC
      October 25, 2023

      The aim is to destroy Britain and all main parties are party to that one final act of revengeful treachery

      People will pay a very heavy price for voting for the legacy parties.

    2. Ian+wrag
      October 25, 2023

      The numbers are only down because we have had some bad weather compared to last year. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing these people to stay in this country. They are mainly young men of fighting age.
      On Sunday we had Jenrick discussing refugees from Gaza. Is your government stark raving mad.

      1. Everhopeful
        October 25, 2023

        ++
        Richard Tice, I believe, has actually been visiting these ā€œ migrant hotelsā€.
        He recently said very clearly on a video that the hotels are deserted during the day.
        The young men are out working!
        It reminds me of an expensive stay we had in a hotel, several years ago, ruined by rowdy behaviour in the lounge.
        Here to install a solar farm apparently.
        Those who bring these people into the country must have decided that it was better to close the hotels to paying visitors.
        Errrā€¦well we DO pay but donā€™t get the holidays!

      2. Lynn Atkinson
        October 25, 2023

        If Egypt and Jordan refuse to give Gaza residents refuse, why should we?

      3. MFD
        October 25, 2023

        I believe a lot of them are stark raving mad, to go further NOT fit for the job!

    3. Peter
      October 25, 2023

      It is just the Minister putting a positive spin on a terrible situation.

      Good news that a hotel in your constituency is now clear but the big picture remains grim and itā€™s not going to get any better.

      It suits globalists to undermine the stability of nation states they wish to control.

    4. Lynn Atkinson
      October 25, 2023

      +1

    5. Berkshire Alan
      October 25, 2023

      Michelle

      Yep amnesty by the back door, under the guise of approval.

      More will now follow as a precedent will be set, that illegal action is now rewarded with acceptance and approval.

    6. Lifelogic
      October 25, 2023

      +1

    7. jerry
      October 25, 2023

      @Michelle; “No doubt [the] future Labour government will lower the criteria for entry, and set up a turnstile at all ports around the world, no documents required.”

      Or they could simply restore the previous systems for claiming asylum, obtaining work visas etc, systems shut down since 2010, or as fail-out from Brexit, for example the UK pulling out of the “Dublin Convention”. Fact, illegal immigration has risen under the Tory governments of the last 13 years [1], as has unfilled job vacancies in certain sectors previously reliant on migrant labour.

      This ragbag of a Conservative Party chose to feed off the lies spouted by UKIP, for electoral gain, without understanding they were being lead up a blind alleyway, that UKIP had nothing to loose. Beware of unintended consequences…

      [1] five Prime Minister, five sets of polices, in effect five different governments

    8. Nigl
      October 25, 2023

      Perfect response. Anyone believe that the speeded up process is anything other than a tick in the box approval. Certainly not me. Obviously no mention of the hundreds of thousands, maybe more who are here totally illegally.

      If politicians believe this tosh and seemingly are claiming credit when they have created/failed on the whole mess they should be in the political dustbin.

      How many times when public outrage reaches fever pitch have we been told they are thinking about withdrawing from the ECHR? Nothing happens of course. I wonder how many potential terrorists have been let in?

      And in other news we see the chaos caused in the rental property sector by Goveā€™s u turns on no fault evictions, now blaming that the court processes need updating first as if this is something new and we read investment in Renewables being held back by archaic planning processes as is development of small nuclear reactors.

      Rich as Croesus politicians who will never have to worry about their financial future totally detached from and incapable of doing what they should do.

      Improve our lives rather than the opposite which is what is happening. Is a Ā£2 bus fare important when thousands are dying because of NHS failure?

    9. Hope
      October 25, 2023

      First priority of any govt is to keep us safe. Uni party failed.

      Our national security has been compromised by mass immigration. It should be no ID no process of application straight deportation or custody until ID proved.

      We are having alien cultures imposed upon us, not them integrating to OUR culture. Socially and in work place forced to accept alien cultures. Where is the Big Society touted by Cameron! They do not even have to speak English vast amounts of taxpayers money wasted on translation services to NHS, who continually cry no money!

      1. MFD
        October 25, 2023

        + agreed , we need rid of the uniparties!

      2. Everhopeful
        October 25, 2023

        I think we are witnessing the utter, abysmal failure of the Big Society.
        Big Society Network set up in 2010ā€¦.OWNED by the charity The Society Network Foundation FUNDED by National Lottery money.
        Alleged misuse of funds!
        “to generate, develop and showcase new ideas to help people to come together in their neighbourhoods to do good thingsā€œ
        Yuk!
        That sort of naive nonsense always gets hijacked.

    10. Iain Moore
      October 25, 2023

      Well said.

      At the heart of the problem are the agreements ( like ECHR and UN 1951 Convention ) our politicians have made, and even though they are doing massive damage to our country, and might just lead to annihilation of the Conservative party , they would rather go down defending them than do what is in our interests, which is rather frightening to realise we have a governing class whose loyalties lie elsewhere.

      We keeping hearing it said…Oh we British were the creators of the ECHR….no we were not, well not this version of it , which is causing us so much trouble, for it is all the creation of judicial activism. We never agreed to this, and it has NO democratic legitimacy, but our politicians prefer to blindly follow its edicts than tell it to go take a hike.

    11. majorfrustration
      October 25, 2023

      Agree. Whilst the realist fully understand the effects of current levels of legal illegal migrants this oversight will only hit home in say ten years time. Whether this country will be one that we would wish to remain in is debateable.

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        October 25, 2023

        Where will we go? There is not one Caucasian country on earth.

        1. Mickey Taking
          October 26, 2023

          yes – the Plan is getting there!

    12. Cheshire+Girl
      October 25, 2023

      Michelle:

      The numbers may be down somewhat, but the taxpayer still has to stump up millions a day, for something that they were never consulted about.

      For goodness sake, why cant we just say NO!!!

      1. Mark J
        October 25, 2023

        The Government seems increasingly unwilling to say ‘No’ to people – unless you are a hard working taxpayer, who pays their own way.

        Can’t be bothered to look for work – That’s OK.
        Arrive in the UK illegally – That’s OK.
        Commit crimes without recourse – That’s OK.
        Net Zero policies that will cost households Ā£000’s – Thats OK!

        A tax cut for struggling workers? NO!

      2. Hope
        October 25, 2023

        Like the EU project, no borders, no nation state. The globalist dream of everyone from anywhere being able to live in harmony. How about if we like our country, our culture? Normally promoted by second generation immigrant MPs.

      3. glen cullen
        October 25, 2023

        The numbers aren’t down, they’re just decreasing from an ever increasing number

      4. Margaret
        October 26, 2023

        Like many other things the truth has and continues to be flipped.It is a fight to get some to understand that we existed before the new thinks.Criminals are getting away with serious crimes by the modern incumbent who cannot see anything wrong.

      5. gregory martin
        October 26, 2023

        Sir John,
        Are you able to ask whether we, the taxpayers, are contracted to re-instate/restore the vacated Hotels as a result of their intensive recent occupation? I suspect that many will otherwise cease to trade, losing a finite resource to the community.

    13. XY
      October 25, 2023

      I was about to post something similar, but since your comment was the only one posted at the time – and seems to cover exactly what I was going to say – I’ll just give yours a thumbs-up.

      In particular, the point regarding claims processing. Our host used the word “improved”. You read that to mean “speeded up”, as did I. To me improvement means not only faster, but “better”. And better means getting the correct outcome.

      From what I know of this, almost none of the people arriving in small boats are eligible. On the basis that they should have stopped at the first safe country, it is quite clear that none are eligible.

      So let’s ask this minister… how are you returning those whose application failed where there is no agreement with the country they claim to have come from?

      Bearing in mind that many of them lie about their origins because they know that they won’t/cannot be returned unless we can establish where they are from. Many claim to be from countries that do not co-operate with us, such as Iran, Syria.

    14. Ian B
      October 25, 2023

      @Michelle +1
      Speeding up of claims? Yes, I get the sound-bite but arriving illegally is first and foremost the crime. Other considerations should not interfere with that. Stepping onto UK shores without papers is illegal, a crime, criminals donā€™t get to make claims.
      That is like saying the next time any of us get a parking or speeding fine we have to have each every claim reviewed. Steal from a shop get caught red-handed ā€“ you can have ā€˜tax-payerā€™ funded human rights Lawyers protesting the infringement of your rights, and so on. Why have crimes when you donā€™t mean it ā€“ lets all have a free for all

    15. Paula
      October 25, 2023

      This has cost the Tory Party their party.

      *** The response to my complaint to the BBC on them not using the world ‘militant’ to describe Hamas was that reporters have been instructed to say “Hamas, said by some to be a terrorist organisation.”

      So. By “some” the BBC means every Western government, every Western security service, every Western police force, every Western court and the King of England too.

      Please put this to Tim Davey if you are at the meeting with him this evening. Also you might ask him if people who refuse to pay the BBC licence for political reasons will be called ‘criminals’ or ‘militants’ .

  2. formula57
    October 25, 2023

    So “The Minister reported progress with stemming the flow.” which reveals that is the extent of the Minister’s aspirations, stem not cease. And anyway is not the the flow rather determined not by the Minister’s efforts but by the illegal gangs operating the boats?

    And it being the Home Office (“not fit for purpose”) and this rotten government, we should ask where are the bogus asylum seekers removed from the hotel in your consituency going to be taken? To another hotel where they will be checked-in under some different classification so as not to be counted as illegal migrants?

    1. graham1946
      October 25, 2023

      They are stemming the boats – a joke surely, just like Fishy saying he is cutting inflation (which he mainly caused) and claiming it is equivalent to a tax cut, when in truth it just means things are inflating slightly slower, not decreasing in cost, like a tax cut would be. This lot can’t even lie straight in bed I reckon, the lies they tell.

    2. acorn
      October 25, 2023

      As a true Tory capitalist grifter, I would like to know which Tory crony, has been gifted the contract to sell off the little boats and particularly the outboard motors that drove them little boats onto an English beach. Is it a repeat of Tory Ministers giving contracts for COVID 19 PPE to their local Pub Landlords and Wine Merchant mates?

      1. forthurst
        October 25, 2023

        They’re being stored by Border Force in Dover, as evidence (of its inability to stop the invasion). Will there be a court case and who will be charged with what?

  3. Lifelogic
    October 25, 2023

    You have to turn the boats back and make sure none arriving illegally can stay. Once this is clear they will stop coming. You have to kill the demand not augment it as now. But zero political will from Sunak. How are his other four promises coming on? Just the inflation halving promise that he might just hit – inflation he and the BoE caused with their QE. Has he given up on the election already Hunt might not even bother to stand it seems.

    Good to hear Rees-Mogg taking the correct, but unpopular, line on the clearly British Shamima Begum she is out problem.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 25, 2023

      Home Office contracts for migrant accommodation are being signed lasting until at least September 2029 it seems. So clearly the Home office does not remotely beleive they or Sunak is going to ā€œstop the boatsā€.

    2. Lifelogic
      October 25, 2023

      About Ā£8m a day for migrant accomodation and still rising.

    3. Know-Dice
      October 25, 2023

      Not sure about “turn the boats back” surely this just means they will stay on the French north coast and get the next boat out… ?

      The French need to either return them to their original country or accept them as legitimate refugees.

      1. Mickey Taking
        October 25, 2023

        what and keep paying the gangs another Ā£2,000 one-way? Or are you suggesting the gangs will say ‘sorry, we’ll give you a free trip’?

        1. Know-Dice
          October 26, 2023

          Crossing the Channel is the “last mile” for migrants, are they just going to give up?

    4. Lifelogic
      October 25, 2023

      Sunak just now on PM questions:-

      ā€œWe are making the right long term decisions for the country:-

      Delivering on Net Zero and energy security (a deluded agenda and Net Zero is the reverse of energy security Sunak no one sensible want the net zero rip off intermittent energy religion mate)
      Delivering on HS2 (only part cancelled and 13 years too late after wasting Ā£billions on something of negative value (more disruption than any value).
      A smoke free generation (sure Sunak your plastic police cannot even stop hard drugs let alone cigarettes)
      Energy security (see Net Zero above) they are totally contradictory (Net Zero or Energy Security)

      Sunak is a deluded socialist heading for a massive defeat even larger than John ERM Majorā€™s second one. Has Sunak given up on his other 5 promises already? This when the opposition is totally dire and clearly even worse than Sunakā€™s Con-Socialists. The election could actually be won but not with this mad, deluded & socialist agenda.

  4. BOF
    October 25, 2023

    I agree with Michelle.

    I repeat, the way to stop the boats and simultaneously put the trafficking gangs out of business is to turn the boats around. Once they are in the country the lawyers take over to prevent them ever being removed.

    Not putting them in hotels looks pretty meaningless. They must still be housed somewhere.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 25, 2023

      You have to make it pointless for the migrants to pay the boat providers, but there is clearly no political will from Sunak or this government – just endless worthless promises and hot air, zero action beyond buying and renting ever more accommodation at tax payers expense. Often tax payers with less disposable money than the migrants.

    2. MFD
      October 25, 2023

      Agreed and to make matters worse WE pay for the lawyers. Insult to injury.

  5. R.Grange
    October 25, 2023

    Put differently, a hotel in the Wokingham constituency is still housing migrants, though we are told they will be sent somewhere else ‘soon’. Let’s take a broader view of the situation. The number of migrants put up in British hotels trebled last year. In 2022, over 12,000 Albanians migrated to Britain illegally, coming from a ‘safe country’ (as the government is now finally describing it). The authorities have returned fewer than 2,000. The rest have been able to stay here, in common with the tens of thousands of asylum applicants we continue to pay for, because the Home Office is still processing them, or because lawyers paid by the government (= taxpayers) want to keep them here. Despite a housing crisis, social housing continues to be allocated to migrants deemed refugees. The Home Office is now granting asylum to 70% or so of applicants, compared with about 30% pre-Covid. That includes applicants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as from Albania. Of these, at least India is supposed to be a democracy, so why does our government not consider it a safe country of origin? Under three Tory PMs 2021-2023, the migrant crisis has been allowed to spiral out of control, and Sunak’s response as a general election looms is nowhere near adequate to deal with it.

  6. Berkshire Alan
    October 25, 2023

    So where are all of these people now going John, given 175,000 are still awaiting a decision?
    Are they now free to roam wherever they like, free to work in the alternative market/economy, because legally they have no right to work until a decision is made.
    Do they claim housing with Local Authorities.
    Are they allowed to claim Benefits.
    Who keeps track of them now, (or do they wear tags that can be cut off)
    Who searches for them when they go missing.
    What a chaotic shambles of a so called solution, which is not a solution at all.
    Clueless absolutely clueless. again !

  7. Wil
    October 25, 2023

    The processing of these visitors will be easy.
    You have paid to enter a country illegally, this is a criminal activity.
    You will be deported.

    1. Ian B
      October 25, 2023

      @Wil +1
      Thats the sound-bite that never happens, we dont need more criminals

    2. Mickey Taking
      October 25, 2023

      commonsense solution, but then …

  8. jerry
    October 25, 2023

    “I am pleased to report one of the hotels being used for migrants in my constituency will be vacated by the Home Office soon.”

    Very precise language there, “by the Home Office”… Sorry Sir John, sounds like more smoke and mirrors from the Minister to me, I hope you and your constituents have been duped by the Govt. (again).

    Can our host be certain that his Local Authority will not then simply use the same hotel to house re-categorized “Homeless” people, who just happen to be the same migrants once held in the immigration system, as is being suggested by some LAs and reported by the MSM this morning. Can our host be certain, should the above concerns not be true, that the migrants removed from said hotel will not simply be housed in another immigration hotel elsewhere in the county or country (and I include accommodation barges, basically one star hotels/B&Bs) rather than either being returned from where they came, or moved into the minimum of a bedsit or studio flat funded via the DWP (in other words such people will be free to find work and pay their own way eventually)?

    “[the Minister] argued that it was not fair that groups of young men sought to circumvent the legal ways of entry and to take more of the places available for asylum seekers by refusing to use the legal channels”

    What legal channels, the Govt has closed off such legal routes for anyone already in the EU, knowing it is all but impossible to apply for asylum in their own country!

    1. jerry
      October 25, 2023

      Opps, and Sorry. ….I hope you and your constituents have _NOT_ been duped by the Govt. (again).

      Now, if only WP had an edit button, until published, there would be no need for me to post this correction, more haste, less speed I guess! šŸ™‚

  9. Sakara Gold
    October 25, 2023

    This summer I travelled to Eire for a short break. After flying in to Dublin and collecting my hire car, I drove to a pre-booked family run guest house on the city outskirts. I was struck by the large numbers of foreigners to be seen everywhere.

    Eire set a record for the number of new asylum seekers in 2022. 13,319 people from around the world applied for asylum last year, according to data released by their Department of Justice – the highest figure since records began, exceeding its previous record high of 11,634 in 2002. Separately, almost 70,000 Ukrainian refugees were granted protection in Eire in the last year. These numbers have put a huge amount of pressure on Irish accommodation services; Eire has a population of only 5 milllion

    Eire is not a wealthy country and public services are overwhelmed, particularly their hospitals. Many Irish are now travelling across the border into NI for medical treatment. No matter how bad the migration situation is here, it’s worse across the water.

    1. jerry
      October 25, 2023

      @SG; Indeed, and I wonder how many of those asylum seekers now living in Eire applied and got their asylum documentation in a southern or eastern EU member state, then traveled on to Eire by way of the Schengen Agreement; and of course if life in Eire proves difficult those migrants will be free to travel to (most of) the 26 other members in the agreement without hassle, or indeed return to their country of origin without first being threatened with being sent to a third country first by the Eire immigration service.

      “Many Irish are now travelling across the border into NI for medical treatment”

      But many did so before, the Eire health service is not necessarily free at the point of need for ROI passport holders, for example a visit to A&E could incur a ā‚¬100 charge, a stay in hospital may also incur charges. UK citizens have their costs charges back to our the NHS via the CTA agreement, I wonder if the NHS actually bother to reciprocate?!

      The UK tends to make rods for our own back, then blame others.

    2. Berkshire Alan
      October 25, 2023

      Sakara
      Free movement of people from the EU is one of the benefits of being a member we are informed.!!!!!

    3. Peter
      October 25, 2023

      Tralee, county Kerry in the South West of Ireland is full of asylum seekers and has been for some time.

      It is extremely upsetting to see a lovely, monocultural, largely rural population in a beautiful part of the world destroyed by these incomers.

      Unionists in Northern Ireland are far better at discouraging them than Sinn Fein, Fianna FƔil, Fine Gael etc.

      London is a big, global capital city so I very reluctantly put up with it.

      My own area is not too bad so far, but I do notice it when I venture outside,

      1. jerry
        October 26, 2023

        @Peter; “It is extremely upsetting to see a lovely, monocultural, largely rural population in a beautiful part of the world destroyed by these incomers. “

        That comments probably say far more about YOU Peter than it does those “incomers”, of which the majority have been British, to the point of Eire having to cede to a different language (and laws)!

    4. Lynn Atkinson
      October 25, 2023

      The Irish Republic is rich according to the EU and themselves, now they are ā€˜free of the U.K.ā€™. They always go to NI for their shopping, health care (free NHS) and much else. I used to bring back a car full of turkeys at Christmas for locals when I visited my family in Belfast. Also filled the car over the border if you lived anywhere close. Nothing to new here.
      Anyway, proportionately the U.K. has taken in more aliens than you cite in Ireland – including those escaping the Irish Republic!

    5. Mickey Taking
      October 25, 2023

      It makes the highest profit on Corporation tax being so low, than any other western country!

  10. Donna
    October 25, 2023

    So where are the criminal migrants who have been accommodated in the hotel going, Sir John?

    Have they been refused asylum and deported? Or has an amnesty effectively been given and the problem passed to the Local Authority to provide and pay for their housing?

    I strongly suspect it’s the latter. In which case the “problem” hasn’t been solved and the cost to British taxpayers has simply been passed to Council Tax payers.

    No Albanian ever had any genuine case for asylum, so blocking that route is simply applying the law as it should have been applied from the start. We are still being invaded on a daily basis by criminal migrants and (as we now know, although media reports are suppressed) some of them are violent extremists.

    If Sunak thinks moving some of them from hotels to council-funded accommodation is going to impress, he’s as delusional about that as he is about thinking a 5 year delay to banning petrol/diesel cars will.

    It’s being reported that Macron is going to ignore the ECHR and deport violent extremists. If France can do it, why can’t we?

  11. Old Albion
    October 25, 2023

    “crossings are down by a fifth” Believe that if you want.

    “The French authorities have co-operated more in stopping boats from departing French shores”
    Yeah right!

    Any slowing of the illegal crossings, were it happening, will be down to poor weather conditions in the English Channel. Nothing more.

    If only we had a a gov. with some cojones. (and Labour won’t be it either)

    1. Lifelogic
      October 25, 2023

      +1 just follow the money (rather like the net harm Covid vaccines for young people), everyone involved is making money and all at the expense of taxpayers, often taxpayers with less disposable cash than the migrants get in their hotels with allowances, food, heat, light, phones. taxis etc. all provided.

  12. David Cooper
    October 25, 2023

    When that hotel (hopefully the first of many) is vacated by the Home Office, what exactly will happen to its illegal immigrant occupants, Mr Jenrick? Will they be (a) immediately deported (b) transferred to secure barracks style accommodation with no leeway for the occupants to move freely amongst the locals (c) quietly re-accommodated in slightly less luxurious surroundings while retaining full freedom of movement? We know the answer we’d like, and the next best alternative, but…

    1. graham1946
      October 25, 2023

      ‘Moving freely amongst the locals’ is all part of the plan. Once they have done this for a while, established themselves here, had some children (or got a cat) they can then be given permanent residence to remain. Tory claim ‘Job done’.

    2. glen cullen
      October 25, 2023

      Puff the Magic Dragon, didn’t mention what would happen, night night kiddies

  13. Lifelogic
    October 25, 2023

    Appalling treatment of Prof. Carl Heneghan at the Covid Enquiry the other day. What truly appalling government medical and science ā€œexpertsā€ they choose to employ. Heneghan has been consistently right and a voice of reason throughout the Covid fiasco. The government and their ā€œexpertsā€ consistently wrong. On the net harm lockdowns, test and trace, the appalling pre-planning, the net harm vaccines (even coerced into the young)ā€¦vast criminal negligence in my view.

    The Covid ā€œenquiryā€ is clearly going to be another totally sick joke. Another insult to all the injury and economic damage the government has already pointlessly caused.

  14. Mickey Taking
    October 25, 2023

    Jam tomorrow, eh?

    1. Everhopeful
      October 25, 2023

      Jam today for some!

  15. DOM`
    October 25, 2023

    Why do accusations and it seems anonymous allegations of ‘sexual misconduct’ only ever apply to Brexit politicians and of a specific gender, race and sexuality?

    when are these allegations treated in a court of law? Just wondering as I thought such behaviour broke the criminal law?

    1. BOF
      October 25, 2023

      DOM
      You are surely not alone in your observations. Not just politicians, but journalists and anyone who dares to disagree with the poisonous ‘narative’.

      1. MFD
        October 25, 2023

        + 1

    2. Everhopeful
      October 25, 2023

      ++
      Remember ā€œCome forward and you will be believedā€?
      This was the doing of the last Labour govt.
      Criminalising, for political purposes, things which were once normal life.

  16. Narrow Shoulders
    October 25, 2023

    It is not a small boats problem it is an illegal immigrant problem.

    Two problems with stopping these criminals (and once a criminal always a criminal) coming is that we let too many of them stay once they get here and life is too easy once they are in the system.

    No benefits to anyone arriving illegally, put them in a dormitory with three meals a day until deported, it should not be possible to apply for asylum if you arrive illegally.

    We need somewhere to deport them to – I suggest funding a camp in Africa or perhaps Gaza, they appear to need more money. We could pay them to take these illigals.

  17. JoolsB
    October 25, 2023

    So well put Michelle. Far too little and far too late. The politicians insult us with their mealy mouthed words. And more insultingly the only reason they are pretending to be doing something is for reasons of pure political self interest because an election is looming. Like you say, amnesties will be given to these illegal immigrants and then they will seek praise for getting down the backlog. There shouldnā€™t be a backlog in the first place because these people should never be allowed to set foot on our shores. How many of them are are members of ISIS, Hamas or Taliban? The first priority of any Government is to protect its people John and this pathetic faux Tory Government have failed us miserably.

  18. beresford
    October 25, 2023

    The attempt to focus attention on ‘gangs’ is a red herring. None of the countries that actually defend their borders do it by pursuing gangs, they do it by repelling or immediately deporting the criminal migrants themselves. But this means getting your hands dirty.

    1. Ian B
      October 25, 2023

      @beresford +1
      The Gangs only exists because this Conservative Government, along with the ā€˜Crisis for Calaisā€™ charity(a UK Registered Charity) and the RNLI (a UK Registered Charity) facilitate their operations.
      You save lives at sea, when a boat is in difficulty, broken down, sinking etc. Sending hard pushed volunteers on a long trip(up to an hour) out to the middle of the English Channel to meet boats as they leave French home waters that are not in difficulty smacks of collusion. They(the RNLI) would need to leave their base at the same time as these criminals launch from a French beach to meet up in the middle of the Channel. So how do they know?

    2. Lifelogic
      October 25, 2023

      Exactly the gangs are funded by the migrants, the migrant themselves are the cause and paymasters of the gangs.

    3. glen cullen
      October 25, 2023

      Correct

  19. The PrangWizard
    October 25, 2023

    The fall in the number of illegals welcomed compared to last year will not explain the alleged reduction in the need for use of hotels. Leaders think that is a vote winner, and don’t let’s forget we are approaching a General Election, and Sir John is desperate to improve his party’s chances, and of course his own.

    If more claims have been processed more illegals will have been granted consent to stay and thus can leave the hotels, so even more of our indigenous society and culture will be allowed to be destroyed. We are already seeing greater examples of what those with foreign beliefs and religions are allowed to promote and impose. Sadly there are too many MPs and others in positions of power who are more than happy to see these interests change our nation; increasing numbers of course share them, along with those who dare not oppose it. We the majority still, are facing a grave and physical danger as a result.

  20. glen cullen
    October 25, 2023

    Smoke & mirrors folks, theyā€™re just moving a few illegal economic immigrants from government funded hotels to local government funded B&B accommodation and council housing ā€¦the numbers remain the same, none being returned to their country of origin

    1. Mark J
      October 25, 2023

      Exactly what I think is happening.

      It is easier to hide expenditure on housing illegal migrants through local Government spending.

      That is until your Council Tax massively increases as a result!

  21. Peter Gardner
    October 25, 2023

    This is all painfully slow and probably won’t work anyway. Something never reported on is that Art 5 of the ECHR specifically provides for, ā€œthe lawful arrest or detention of a person to prevent his effecting an unauthorised entry into the country or of a person against whom action is being taken with a view to deportation or extradition.ā€
    Why doesn’t the Government make use of this? They don’t need to prove a case of people smuggling, which would be complex. They need only apply it to the driver of the boat who is clearly materially assisting unauthorised entry. The Government should also raise it with France, whose escorts are also clearly assisting unauthorised entry into the UK, and simply turn the boats back with a Royal Naval escort – as it is entitled to do under the UNCLOS (Art 33) beyond the limits of its territorial seas, ie., in French waters.
    Aslylum seekers do not have a right to shop around until they find a country they like. Neither may they spend months in France before embarking for the UK as the protection of Art 31 of the UN Convention applies only if travelling directly (short stop-overs counting as direct according to case law) to the UK.
    The Government does none of these things because its aim is only appear to be ‘doing something’ to create a few headlines to persuade enough people to vote Tory in the next general election. it does not want the hassle of facing resistance from France and the EU and fighting through a tough policy. An easy life for the Tory Party is bad for the UK, very bad.

  22. Bryan Harris
    October 25, 2023

    He was able to tell us that numbers crossing from the continent are down by a fifth this year compared to last.

    Is that another case of numbers, lies and government statistics?

    I’d like to see real hard evidence before I start cheering.

    1. glen cullen
      October 25, 2023

      Itā€™s the same argument accounting the number of illegal immigrants in the UK, it doesnā€™t matter if they get settle status, refugee status, right to remain etc etc ā€¦as none are ever going to be sent back to their country of origin
      So it doesnā€™t really matter where they are in the immigration pipeline THEYā€™RE ALL HERE TO STAY and when politicians say theyā€™re reducing the assessment time and making quicker decisions, theyā€™re really just moving the immigrants further along the pipeline !

    2. Mickey Taking
      October 26, 2023

      only a fifth? I want 90% before I even think about cheering.
      8.46

  23. Mike Wilson
    October 25, 2023

    Still more nonsense about the ā€˜criminal gangsā€™. On a fine day, when the waters are calm, you should simply block the boats mid Channel and turn them back. Youā€™d only have to do it once or twice. If people knew they would be turned back, they wouldnā€™t pay the ā€˜criminal gangsā€™.

    It is a farce. Why doesnā€™t that young girl who went to Syria aged a very impressionable 15 simply throw away her papers and hop across the Channel on a boat? Letā€™s face it, sheā€™s living in a refugee camp. She must be a genuine refugee.

    1. Ian B
      October 25, 2023

      @Mike Wilson +1
      So true, but you first need a Government(and Parliament) that works for the people that empowers and pays it

    2. Lifelogic
      October 25, 2023

      Indeed and she is clearly British Javid was surely quite wrong to remove her citizenship. She is the UKs problems not anyone elseā€™s.

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        October 25, 2023

        She is clearly NOT British! She is the citizen of another country. Let them worry about her.

  24. Christine
    October 25, 2023

    Make foreign aid conditional on accepting the return of their people. Itā€™s ridiculous that we are giving money to countries like Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, and Sudan who refuse to cooperate with the UK government in relation to the removal from the United Kingdom of their nationals. This government has to start being tough rather than weak.

    1. Mark J
      October 25, 2023

      Totally agree.

    2. glen cullen
      October 25, 2023

      But how would those countries, buy weapons, rolls-royces, and fly to the moon ….without our aid

  25. Christine
    October 25, 2023

    The only thing stopping the boats is the weather. I do not trust this government on immigration as they caused the problem in the first place. They kowtowed to big businesses who wanted cheap labour and gave out more visas than any other party in the history of our country. The lowering of the minimum wage required was forced through by Labour and the Conservative party just accepted it. They are weak, weak, weak and the British people are paying the price.

  26. oldwulf
    October 25, 2023

    “He argued that it was not fair that groups of young men sought to circumvent the legal ways of entry and to take more of the places available for asylum seekers by refusing to use the legal channels.”

    Surely, this has always been the case.
    Why has he suddenly woken up to the problem ?
    Maybe it’s a combination of Palestine .. and a forthcoming UK general election.
    Where there is a will there is a way.
    It’s galling that it has taken this long to find a “will”.

  27. Denis Cooper
    October 25, 2023

    If the government was serious about solving this problem they would make use of Ascension Island:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/09/17/the-five-targets-for-government/#comment-1410025

    “Firstly I am not convinced that this government really wants to curb illegal immigration by whatever route. I do not make a distinction between any of the main political parties on this, as they all favour uncontrolled and unlimited mass immigration from whatever sources by whatever means.”

    Last night’s BBC programme on the housing crisis did briefly refer to immigration, from 06.30 onwards:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rsf8/britains-housing-crisis-what-went-wrong-series-1-episode-2

    with Nigel Farage claiming that we had to build a new dwelling every seven minutes to cope with it.

    That would come to about 75,000 new homes every year across the whole country, which is plausible.

    Back in March 2005 I looked just at the South East Plan:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/10/10/labours-conference/#comment-1413538

    “In fact if we built over 36,000 new homes a year, as strongly urged by business groups, that would be roughly twice as many as the indigenous population will ever need.”

  28. Bloke
    October 25, 2023

    Claims of progress are limp and misleading.
    ā€˜Numbers coming down by a fifth this yearā€™ means that they have increased by four fifths this year!
    Far too little has been done for far too long by this incompetent shower.
    Dump them! The Reform Party would not tolerate such nonsense.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 26, 2023

      read the BBC ‘small boats facts checked’ – even they dispute ‘re-assurance’.

      1. Bloke
        October 26, 2023

        Thanks for referral.
        Risky Sunak claims of honesty and integrity are revealed as deceptive sham.

  29. James4
    October 25, 2023

    Yes and we’re going to need the space for when the refugees from Gaza come – the same people and their ancestors who were dispossessed of their lands fifty sixty seventy years ago and still today.

  30. Ian B
    October 25, 2023

    ā€œIllegal migrants placing ā€˜unbearable pressureā€™ on housing, says Robert Jenrickā€
    Why is the UK Taxpayer forced to house those that criminally enter the Country, before they can look after our own population. The ‘Human Rights’ of UK Citizens is being abused by this Conservative Government.
    As shown in a recent High Court’ action it is our own MP’s, our own Parliament, this Conservative Government that has entered unto the UK statute(A Law) that the UK cannot send people back to Countries they have no connection with. Meaning they may have entered the UK from France but they cant be sent back there although it is deemed a safe Country.
    The fault-line is our own ‘Legislators’ those we empower and pay that are refusing their job. They could amend, repeal the/their Law tomorrow, but they wont so you have to ask why?

    1. Iain Moore
      October 25, 2023

      Why are we forced to house migrants? I believe a Barrister called Keir Starmer took the then Labour Government , Blunket I believe, to court, and won his case.

  31. Denis Cooper
    October 25, 2023

    Off topic, from 07.56 in that BBC programme last night:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rsf8/britains-housing-crisis-what-went-wrong-series-1-episode-2

    George Osborne was shown predicting that house prices could fall by 18% if we left the EU, and that would be “an absolutely catastrophic economic mistake for our country”.

    He and David Cameron and also Mark Carney and others bear a heavy burden of responsibility for the sequence of events which has left Northern Ireland as a condominium with the EU for the sake of a low value trade deal:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/10/19/the-state-of-the-union-2/#comment-1269044

  32. Roy Grainger
    October 25, 2023

    When they say they have “improved the processing of claims” what does that mean ? I assume it just means that the vast majority of claims are still being approved but a bit quicker than before ?

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 26, 2023

      it means moving from ‘In-tray’ to ‘Pending’.

  33. Ian B
    October 25, 2023

    This criminal activity is enabled and facilitated by our MPā€™s, our Parliament, our Legislators lead by this Conservative Governments with 14 years at the helm is clearly a BIG Election Issue, and so it should be. They could change the Law tomorrow, they could have done it a year ago ā€“ but they have refused.
    Why vote for people who fail at their job, fail in their commitments and actually do the opposite. Why empower and pay these people, these are all the same people that have as UK Law placed the rights of Foreign Criminals ahead of the rights of UK Citizens. Then ensured it is the UK Taxpayer that has to look after Foreign Criminals, before are own less fortunate members of Society.

  34. Mark J
    October 25, 2023

    As others have said, contracts for housing illegal migrants have been signed through to at least 2029.

    So even if the Conservatives do manage to win the next election, they will still be dogged with the illegal migrants issue throughout much of another term in office.

    Also what happens to the migrants being moved out of Hotels?

    Will their applications be approved on the quiet, so that the responsibility of the Home Office is then passed onto local authorities to deal with. Many local authorities are struggling to give British born people housing, let alone having to house the rest of the world who decide to turn up.

    So the headline figures of “Ā£8 million a day” can be hidden in the midst of local authority spending instead.

    It just appears to be another exercise in ‘massaging the figures’, so that the problem doesn’t appear to be as bad as it is.

    Why can’t this Government just grasp the solutions that the majority wants. Stop the boats, turn people around, start saying NO to people with clearly no right to be here and start deporting those people with no legal right on a larger scale.

    Unless the Government starts taking this issue with some seriousness, there will be huge social issues going forward. If you keep importing people with intolerant views to our own, then it will eventually become evident.

    You will also have zero hope of winning the next election. Many, including myself, have had enough of this.

    We’ve had an issue with increasing mass illegal migration for nearly 25 years now. However, no Government has had the backbone to properly deal with it in all this time.

  35. Original Richard
    October 25, 2023

    The inaction by our ruling elites ā€“ Parliament, civil service and judiciary – to stop the illegal invasion of unidentified immigrants of fighting age and from a countries with completely different laws, culture and language to ours is unacceptable.

    Countries are made up of people and if you import the third world you become the third world.

    They know the only way to stop the flow is to tow back these boats to the continent.

  36. Ian B
    October 25, 2023

    Following the recent local election results
    We have had Tory MPā€™s suggesting that the Conservative Party must make the election promise, to solve basically all the ills that now plague our Country, which includes the Criminal Invasion, the 70 year High Tax burden, excessive Government borrowing, and the exponential growth of the State.
    The Problem with another election promise, after 14 years of similar failed promises, even with an 80 seat majority they still refuse to even do the basics, they the Conservative Government renege on everything in every manifesto. It is suggested we will still believe.
    So as suggested by MPā€™s talking out of their rear end if they make another promise the electorate will believe them and look forward to a prosperous safe secure in their hands?

  37. Denis Cooper
    October 25, 2023

    Also off topic:

    https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1827656/who-will-win-2024-UK-general-election-conservative-party-wiped-out-rishi-sunak

    “The Conservative Party faces complete annihilation, unless they do thisā€¦ Ben Habib”

    I have to think afresh about what to do here, because Theresa May’s 18,846 majority no longer looks safe.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 26, 2023

      Oh! goody….
      8.39

  38. Ian B
    October 25, 2023

    Labour criticise ā€˜inaction manā€™ Sunak on PMā€™s one year anniversary

    Labour claimed Rishi Sunak ā€œsimply isnā€™t strong enough to turn Britainā€™s fortunes aroundā€ as the party responded to the Prime Ministerā€™s one year anniversary in No10 (see the post below at 08.42).

  39. Ian B
    October 25, 2023

    The only ones not seeing it are the Conservative Party, they are encouraging obscurity

  40. RichardP
    October 25, 2023

    Iā€™m not impressed. This ā€˜initiativeā€™ has more to do with dismal election results than a desire to change immigration policy.
    I would like to know what happens about the contracts with the emptied hotels. Will the tax payer continue to pay for hotels no longer used to house migrants?
    I would also like to know where the government intends to move the migrants. Will their accommodation become the responsibility of hard pressed local authorities and council tax payers?
    Far from saving money, this plan could cost considerably more.

  41. Bert+Young
    October 25, 2023

    Any illegal immigrant should be exited immediately . There is no point shilly-shallying about this ; every one of them is the result of a criminal association . Whether they arrive by a small boat , in the back of a lorry or by any other means , they are still illegal . Those who arrange the boats and are involved with illegal entry should be exposed and subject to life imprisonment ; European Governments and their laws have been far too lenient in this matter – illegals exist all across the Continent ; only now new border controls have been established . Sunaks’ promises have been ” hot air ” and a mockery of intentions .

  42. Peter Parsons
    October 25, 2023

    So what are the legal channels then? What is the answer to the question that Tim Loughton asked of the current Home Secretary at a Select Committee meeting?

    Because, as I understand it, we are still waiting for it to be answered.

    Reply. Lots of schemes set out on HO. Website. try reading.

    1. Peter+Parsons
      October 25, 2023

      I have. None of them answer Tim Loughton’s question.

  43. miami.mode
    October 25, 2023

    The only solution is legislation to prevent these people staying here with subsequent removal. With the recent demonstrations over Gaza we have seen the future.

    According to the Independent Labour MP Stella Creasy has accused the Home Office of ejecting refugees from their temporary hotel accommodations with merely a weekā€™s notice and added there is ā€œno assistanceā€ being provided to these people, leading them to resort to local homeless shelters. Well if they had given us a bit of notice that they were due to arrive the government could have arranged a free hotel stay for them!!! We can easily see the Labour approach to the problem.

  44. Ed M
    October 25, 2023

    I’ve heard that most of these people travelling by boats etc are relatively well off (to the standards of their own country) and come here to milk the system (and that they just see us as gullible doormats to help pay for their properties / land back at home – stuff like that). That the truly poor and vulnerable in the countries they come from are too poor to travel / to make this journey. Is this true? Has the government done an in-depth study on this?

  45. Ed M
    October 25, 2023

    Also, what systems are in place to test how valuable government aid is being spent in these countries? We have to give – not out of charity (that’s a private matter for the individual – except in times of natural disasters etc when gov does have to help) but to prevent political chaos spilling out and affecting us.

  46. Ian B
    October 25, 2023

    Think, we have a Problem! Look at the semantics and self-preening of the so-called Political Class. We have the UN, the EU, Davos, the WEF, G8 and so on – all talking shops none with any democratic legitimacy all inferring and interfering as if they rule the World and its People.

    The UK Taxpayer gets to pay, in some cases the entrance fee as well as for the actual attendance of those that have got ahead of themselves to show up at these personal self- gratification events.

    All the while, those same people have for gotten their purpose of serving democracy, freedoms, proper management and so on of the UK. They are elected empowered and paid to do a job, to be the UK Parliament, its Legislators, its Government acting for all the People of the UK equally, which as it turns out is the one job they refuse.

    Now we get to enjoy no end of hype, misdirection, promises and plain old fashioned lies ā€“ why? Just so the neglect of the UK can be continued in the run up to another failed in its purpose election.
    The Criminal Invasion will continue as long as they have the Power – its dismissed as free movement, then shrouded in double talk and ignored, because the talking shops demand it.

    1. Ian B
      October 25, 2023

      I am being disingenuous to our kind host, that along with just a few others of all persuasions are pushed to the fringes of our political system – they get it, understand purpose and duty. They are all pushed aside and ignored by those that have put personal ego, preening, self gratification above serving their Constituents and Country.

  47. Paula
    October 25, 2023

    No single issue has shown the voter how utterly pointless it is to vote Tory than the boat crossings.

    Criticising Starmer/Labour via the Tory press just isn’t working any more.

    “Vote for us to keep Labour out.” is no longer a viable slogan. Patrick O’flynn said that “People are no longer scared of Labour” but we are. The thing is that the Tories have hurt us so much we’re just as scared of them too !!!

    You’ve really really hurt us, Sir John. the legalisation of so-called petty crime, the potholes, the weeds coming up through pavements, the tax, the Woke…

    Could it possibly be any worse under Labour ?

    1. paul cuthbertson
      October 25, 2023

      Paula – It does not matter which party one votes for, the Globalist UK WEF Establishment control the agenda. No one should vote.

  48. MFD
    October 25, 2023

    Irish travelling across the botder into Great Britain for hospitals ??? That must be stopped, we are not here to pay for the treatment of Republican terrorists , the enemies of our country.

    Disgusting, this is a country that provided arms to terroorists to kill British soldiers

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      October 25, 2023

      The Irish are British. They gained their ā€˜independenceā€™ with the agreement that they would ALSO retain all the advantages of U.K. citizens. They can vote in our elections.
      Did you not know that?

      1. Mickey Taking
        October 26, 2023

        the ‘Irish’ with Republic passports are NOT British.
        They cannot vote in our elections, and are full members of the EU.
        Did you not know that?

  49. agricola
    October 25, 2023

    !a!aaaaaaaaaaa

  50. glen cullen
    October 25, 2023

    Well the final straw for me is this government today putting a barrier fence around the cenotaph in london ā€¦.its been placed there to protect it from foreigners & immigrants that might not accept our traditions and culture
    Please immediately remove it and lets witness the intensions of our foreigners & immigrants? Our government are cowards

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 26, 2023

      and make deportation the sentence for any defacing or attempt.
      8.33

  51. XY
    October 25, 2023

    Reports emerging that councils are saying they will have to start using the same hotels to house migrants.

    Just shifting the tax burden to taxes imposed by a different authority – and making them more permanent, since such migrants will have leave to remain here – their asylum applications must have been approved.

  52. Mark
    October 25, 2023

    “Asylum seekers” are a visible element of immigration (particularly when they occupy a major hotel near you), almost all of them entering the country illegally. However, they are less than 5% of the net immigration flow recorded by government, which is itself probably an underestimate given the statistical methodology. Immigration policy in general is far too lax. We take in far too many nominal students with no clear reason for doing so. Large numbers of low wage workers act as anchors for their family members. It seems the Home Office is in fact an Away Office, staffed mainly by people from immigrant communities. The system has more holes than a colander. It needs a complete overhaul.

  53. James Morley
    October 25, 2023

    I do agree.

  54. Derek
    October 25, 2023

    So having (eventually) successfully stopped them coming what will we do with all of those who remain here living off of the British tax payers?
    Rwanda cannot possible take the tens of thousands who will remain so how and where will we repatriate them when they have disposed of the true I/D? In no way can they be rewarded for breaking our law.

  55. Mickey Taking
    October 25, 2023

    On closure of the hotels for illegal immigrants, the cost of ‘bed & board’ will fall on the Local Authority – isn’t that correct Sir John? So I will now have added cost in my council tax!

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 25, 2023

      moving deck-chairs on the Titanic again?

      1. glen cullen
        October 25, 2023

        While still in port

  56. Dave Andrews
    October 25, 2023

    The sight of the Palestinian flag on the streets of London suggest the wrong people have been allowed into this country. I don’t expect to see the Palestinian flag, nor the Israeli flag for that matter. I expect to see the Union Jack and only the Union Jack.

    1. glen cullen
      October 25, 2023

      Imagine waving our union flag in the middle of the streets in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ā€¦in fact youā€™re advise not to be on the streets during Friday prayers

    2. Mickey Taking
      October 26, 2023

      I expect to see the St. George flag, is it now illegal to sell it, or fly it?
      8.32

    3. graham1946
      October 26, 2023

      Shown on tv the other day, a man with the St.Geroge’s flag was spoken to by police and given ‘words of advice’ i.e. don’t show it as the foreigners here don’t like it. So o.k. to show ISIS black flag and Palestinian ones in support of Hamas, but not our own one, because the police are frightened the foreigners will become violent.

  57. Everhopeful
    October 25, 2023

    Apart from presumably throwing our doors open even wider..if Labour wins the next election it wants to put VAT on everything.
    Those on benefits will not be affected. They just have to show their tax code at the checkout and will not have to pay the extra.

  58. hefner
    October 25, 2023

    So we had ā€˜flooding in the North East because the wind was coming from the Eastā€™. And the SoSEFRA has just shown she is even less intelligent than previously thought.

    1. Hope
      October 26, 2023

      +many

  59. paul cuthbertson
    October 25, 2023

    Do not believe a word. These illegals are here with the full knowledge and co-operation of your government. They are an organised Rent a Mob and nothing else. Remember the BLM protests, it is coming again but in a different form.

Comments are closed.