Rishi unloads on Keir Starmer over Channel boats crisis at PMQs

Rishi Sunak unloaded on Keir Starmer over the Channel boats crisis today accusing the Labour leader of being ‘just another Lefty lawyer standing in our way’.

In brutal clashes at PMQs, the premier raged that Sir Keir is ‘in hock to open border activists’ and accused him of branding all immigration law ‘racist’.

Mr Sunak said Sir Keir had been ‘on the wrong side of this issue his entire career’, challenging him to support the new legislation banning Channel arrivals from claiming asylum. ‘It will be the Conservatives who stop the boats,’ he swiped, tagging Labour as the ‘party of free movement’.

But a clearly furious Sir Keir shot back that the PM was talking nonsense’, saying he was deluded to think the new proposals could work.   

The sharp exchanges came as ministers sounded defiance on the government’s new plans, despite the UN condemned them as against international law.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman insisted that drastic action is needed to tackle the crisis and the ‘simple truth is that we cannot accept everybody who wants to come’.  

Despite a welter of criticism from human rights bodies, with the UNHCR branding the new policy a ‘clear breach’ of the refugee convention, Ms Braverman said the measures had been approved by an ‘army of lawyers’ in government. 

‘We very strongly view our proposals as lawful,’ she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. 

A clearly furious Sir Keir shot back that the PM was talking nonsense’, saying he was deluded to think the new proposals could work

A group being brought ashore in Dover after crossing the Channel earlier this week

Suella Braverman sounded defiance today as the UN condemned plans to block Channel migrants from claiming asylum in the UK

On a round of interviews this morning, Ms Braverman argued that preventing people who make the dangerous journey from skipping the queue for settlement in the UK would act as a deterrent – cautioning that unless the plan works numbers could hit 80,000 this year.

However, Ms Braverman repeatedly dodged on when the first migrants might be deported under the latest legislation, or how much the scheme would cost.  

The government is braced for a struggle in domestic and international courts over the proposals.

The UNHCR’s representative to the UK, Vicky Tennant, pointed to the rules in the 1951 convention on refugees. 

‘We’re very concerned. This is effectively closing off access to asylum in the UK for people arriving irregularly,’ she told BBC’s Newsnight.

‘We believe it’s a clear breach of the Refugee Convention, and remember even people with very compelling claims will simply not have the opportunity to put these forward.’

Downing Street said: ‘Obviously we disagree. We recognise these are new approaches but we think they meet our international obligations.

‘We stand ready to defend them in court.’

In a round of intervews this morning, Ms Braverman said the policy would have a deterrent effect and the number of crossings would ‘fall dramatically’.

‘We will see, based on other countries’ experiences, that once we’re able to relocate people who’ve come here illegally from the United Kingdom to another safe country, like Rwanda, or back to their own home country, then, actually, the numbers of people making the journey in the first place will fall dramatically,’ she said.

Asked how the Government was going to build the detention spaces necessary to house the tens of thousands of people crossing the channel, the Home Secretary told the BBC: ‘We don’t need to build 50,000 new detention places.

‘We are going to increase our detention capacity, that’s absolutely certain.’

Ms Braverman also stood by her claim yesterday that ‘there are 100million people around the world who could qualify for protection under our current laws’ and ‘they are coming here’.

She said this morning: ‘I see my role as being honest … I’m not going to shy away from displaying the enormity of the problem that we are facing.

‘The UN itself has confirmed there are over 100million people who are displaced globally, because of all sorts of factors like conflict or persecution … and these are many people who would like to come to the United Kingdom.

‘The simple truth is that we cannot accept everybody who wants to come to the United Kingdom.’

Ms Braverman admitted to MPs yesterday that there is a ‘more (than) 50 per cent chance’ the legislation may not be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Announcing the plans in the Commons, Ms Braverman said asylum seekers arriving illegally will be detained without bail or judicial review for 28 days before being ‘swiftly removed’ to their home country or a ‘safe third country’ such as Rwanda.

They face a lifetime ban on returning once deported and will never be allowed to settle in the country or gain citizenship.

The Bill’s feasibility has been questioned as plans such as forcibly removing asylum seekers to Rwanda are mired in legal challenges.

The number of asylum applications spiked last year to 74,751, relating to 89,398 individuals – the highest since 2002 

The number of arrivals in small boats peaked at nearly 9,000 a month in the summer 

Home Office figures lay bare how the number of illegal immigration attempts detected have risen – dominated by Channel boats arrivals

But Conservative MP Richard Graham expressed optimism over the courts’ rulings on UK refugee policy, telling BBC Newsnight ‘there are interesting indications that actually in Strasbourg our case is being listened to’.

Mr Sunak told a Downing Street press conference that migrants arriving in the UK illegally will be removed ‘within weeks’ and that the Bill will apply ‘retrospectively’ if passed.

The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, said it was ‘profoundly concerned’ by the Bill and that, if passed, it will amount to an ‘asylum ban’.

Critics also included BBC presenter Gary Lineker, who faced censure from the broadcaster after writing on Twitter: ‘This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.’

In an email to Tory members, the Home Secretary claimed that previous attempts to end Channel crossings without resorting to changing the law had been blocked by ‘an activist blob of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party’.

Mr Sunak will meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to discuss further co-operation that will be required to reduce boat crossings.