Sir Keir Starmer vowed to close a legal loophole on Gazans being given the right to live in the UK after a Palestinian family were allowed to come to Britain by applying through a scheme designed for Ukrainian refugees.
In a tense exchange during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the judge’s decision was “completely wrong, it cannot be allowed to stand”.
Sir Keir replied: “I do not agree with the decision. She is right, it is the wrong decision.
“She hasn’t quite done her homework because the decision in question was taken under the last government.”
Mrs Badenoch told the Commons: "He talks about a decision made under the last government, it was not made by the last government, it was made by the courts. The issue we are discussing today is about judicial decisions.
"We cannot be in a situation where we allow enormous numbers of people to exploit our laws in this way. There are millions of people all around the world in terrible situations. We cannot help them all, and we certainly cannot bring them all here.”
The Prime Minister replied: "I've already said the Home Secretary has already got her team working on closing this loophole. We don't need to wait for that. We're getting on with that because we're taking control.
"The [Conservatives] lost control of immigration. We had nearly a million people come into this country, had an open borders experiment, and on Monday of this week, they voted against increased powers to deal with those that are running a vile trade of people smuggling. Same old Tories, open borders, empty promises."
The Palestinian family of six, comprising a mother, father and their four children who were aged 18, 17, eight and seven in September, were displaced after their home was destroyed by an airstrike in the Israel-Hamas war.
They applied for entry to the UK using the Ukraine Family Scheme to join the father’s brother, who has lived in the UK since 2007 and is a British citizen, but this was refused in May last year after the Home Office concluded the requirements of the scheme were not met.
The family, who have been granted anonymity, had an appeal against the decision dismissed by a first-tier immigration tribunal judge in September.
A further appeal has been allowed by upper tribunal judges on the grounds of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family life, after a hearing in January.
Judge Hugo Norton-Taylor said in his judgment: “We conclude that the respondent’s (Home Office’s) refusal of the collective human rights claim does not, on the particular facts of these cases, strike a fair balance between the appellants’ interests and those of the public.
“On a cumulative basis, the weight we attach to the considerations weighing on the appellants’ side of the scales demonstrates a very strong claim indeed. Put another way, there are very compelling or exceptional circumstances.
“Accordingly, the appellants’ appeals are allowed.”
The Home Office will oppose more people fleeing Gaza being given the right to live in the UK, says a minister.
Local growth minister Alex Norris earlier on Wednesday stressed that the Government had “opposed at every stage” the tribunal’s decision.
Mr Norris told GB News: “It’s something that we opposed, we opposed at every stage.
“We don’t think it’s likely to have wider ramifications in the sense it seems to be a narrow judgement on a single case.
“But that is not something that we support and we will continue to oppose it if those cases came up in the future.”
The judge, though, said the evidence shows the security and humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “exceptionally dangerous” and “dire”.
He highlighted that the youngest children, now aged seven and nine, are “at a high risk of death or serious injury on a daily basis” and that it is “overwhelmingly” in their best interests to be given refuge in a safe or safer environment together with their parents and siblings.
He also detailed submissions by the Home Office which argued the absence of a resettlement scheme for Palestinians in Gaza was a “significant” consideration, and that allowing the appeals would be “a leap” in terms of the UK’s obligations to allow family members living in conflicts entry.
The judge also referenced what he called a “floodgates” argument, in which the Home Office said an obligation to admit the family risked the same outcome applying to those in other conflicts around the world.
A Home Office spokesman said it had contested the claim “rigorously”, adding: “The latter court ruled against us on the narrow facts of this specific case. Nevertheless, we are clear that there is no resettlement route from Gaza, and we will continue to contest any future claims that do not meet our rules.”
