The Tories ignored the will of the people and abandoned our borders
Tories #Tories
The British people spent 13 years asking successive Conservative prime ministers for the same thing: controlled immigration. They want the government to fulfil its basic duty of safeguarding Britain’s borders. I can guarantee that Rishi Sunak will once again fail to deliver on each of the British people’s three critical demands.
The first and simplest demand is for the government to stop small boats crossing the Channel. The numbers arriving doubled in the first two months of 2023, and current forecasts suggest we can expect as many as 85,000 to make the dangerous crossing this year. They will have paid thousands of pounds to vile but resourceful people traffickers, who are profiting from Britain’s weak borders.
Where are these people meant to go? There are already more than 50,000 migrants staying in hotels, costing the taxpayer more than £6 million every day. Are we going to find another 400 or 500 hotels to accommodate them? Or is the government going to start booking out rental homes, worsening the housing crisis British citizens already face?
If the recent protests outside migrant hotels have got politicians worried today, how will things be in just a few months when the numbers soar again? Too many concerned communities have been smeared and labelled as racist for expressing concern or anger over what is happening to their towns. Understandably local parents are worried about hundreds of newly arrived and unvetted young men arriving; we have seen too many horror stories for it to be otherwise.
The British people are a generous and hospitable bunch. We like to do our bit to welcome genuine refugees, and have done so over many years. We have safe and legal routes for those fleeing danger and persecution in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong, and are proud to be a safe haven for those in need. But we also know that too many of those crossing the Channel are economic migrants seeking a better life and attempting to skip the queue for regular migration. Over a quarter of those making the journey come from Albania, a Nato member and candidate for EU membership.
Sunak’s new immigration law will not fix this mess. We’ve already seen that the legislation is riddled with potentially fatal flaws. The fundamental truth is that the Tories cannot stop the boats because they don’t have the guts to face down the Left and follow in Australia’s footsteps.
The second thing Britain wants is even simpler: the rapid assessment of the backlog of 160,000 migrants claiming asylum. The Government’s latest wheeze for fixing this is having over 12,000 fill in a multiple choice questionnaire without face-to-face interviews so the computer can say “yes”, rather than waiting for the glacial decisions from caseworkers. It’s an amnesty in all but name, and just another example of why so many are coming here. We accept more than 75 per cent of asylum applications, compared to just 25 per cent in France. This is why economic migrants are willing to pay traffickers such rich sums for the journey.
We need to reassert control, scrutinise claims, reject those that are invalid, and then follow through with the deportation of those with no right to stay here. The Home Office is failing to guard our borders, and far too often failing to return those with no right to stay. It’s not fit for purpose. A new Department of Immigration is urgently needed, staffed by those who believe Britain has a right to say who can come here, rather than the open borders mandarins. There would be plenty of job applicants.
The third demand is simpler still. Britain wants lawful immigration to be focused on the key areas where we have genuine skills shortages and need highly paid specialists. This was a key part of the Brexit pledge and the Conservative manifesto in the last four elections. Each time the Tories have abandoned this promise in favour of an “open door, all comers welcome” approach. The result is a record high population, soaring rents, and overcrowded public services.
It is sadly far too clear that none of these demands will be met. Reform UK is the only party willing to deliver them. The Conservatives, meanwhile, will suffer a resounding rejection in next year’s general election.
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