Suella Braverman silences Yvette Cooper over Labour ‘hysteria’ in brutal Commons clash

Suella Braverman slapped down Yvette Cooper in the House of Commons, accusing her opposite number of embarking on “five minutes of hysteria, histrionics and criticism”. This came after Ms Cooper criticised the Home Secretary’s plan to stop small boats from smuggling migrants into Britain. But Ms Braverman ridiculed the Labour politician, saying: “I’ve still got no idea what Labour’s plan is.”

Ms Cooper launched into a furious criticism of the Government’s plans, which will stop asylum, modern slavery, and human rights laws being used by migrants who have breached Britain’s borders.

She said the asylum system is “broken”, but accused the Conservative party of having “broken it”.

Ms Cooper warned that the system is “deeply damaged”, adding: “There’s no point in ministers trying to blame anyone else for it. They have been in power.”

But Ms Braverman hit back, saying: “Deep down, the leader of the opposition doesn’t want to stop the boats.”

She claimed: “Labour are against deterring people who would come here illegally. They are against detaining people who do come here illegally, and they are against deporting people who are here illegally. That means, Mr Speaker, that they are for this situation getting worse and worse.”

The new bill will put a legal “duty to remove” anyone entering the country illegally on the Home Secretary.

Lawyers will no longer be able to block the removals apart from in limited exceptional circumstances, with children exempt from the changes.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “Our focus will be on deporting people to safe third countries, or indeed back to their country of origin. That is the stated aim and, obviously, we have the agreement with Rwanda, we have some returns agreement.”

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