Rishi Sunak’s plan to stop small boat crossings will “drive a coach and horses” through protections for women who are trafficked to Britain as victims of modern slavery, Keir Starmer has said.
The Labour leader made the warning to coincide with International Women’s Day, as he labelled new legislation to tackle illegal migration a “gimmick” and warned it was likely to lead to yet another broken promise.
Highlighting the five announcements previously hailed by prime ministers as a means to reduce the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats, Starmer challenged Sunak to confirm how many people would be returned under the latest policy and when removals would start.
Though Sunak avoided answering the questions directly, he was ebullient about the progress being made to tackle the number of arrivals in small boats, which rose to 45,000 last year. He called Starmer “just another lefty lawyer standing in our way” to cheers from the Conservative benches, in a fiery exchange between the two leaders at prime minister’s questions.
Ahead of a trip to France later this week to improve cooperation on dealing with the issue, Sunak was repeatedly challenged about the feasibility of his plan announced on Tuesday under which all those who arrive in small boats will be detained and deported.
Though the Rwanda returns scheme is held up in the courts and ministers have admitted the new illegal migration bill might break the UK’s obligations under the European convention on human rights, Sunak insisted he would press ahead with a plan to deliver on what he called “the people’s priority”.
He stressed the UK would remain a “compassionate and generous country”, but said only those who arrive “fairly and legally” would have their asylum claims considered.
Sunak has set no date for his target to “stop the boats” and Starmer challenged him to say when the crossings would end. The prime minister said he would implement the plan “as soon as we pass it through parliament” – expected to be later this year, given an anticipated showdown in the House of Lords, which is likely to be followed by legal challenges.
Though Sunak drew attention to Starmer’s previous support for free movement, the Labour leader said that as director of public prosecutions he had overseen the deportation of rapists and added the conviction rate for people-smuggling was twice then what it was today.
Starmer also pointed to government statistics which showed that the number of people arriving on small boats whose asylum claims had been processed had fallen from 4% a few months ago to 1%.
In an attempt to show there was some progress on an issue that has captivated many “red wall” Tory MPs, Sunak argued there were now 6,000 fewer people in the asylum backlog and pointed to more caseworkers being hired.
He also laid into Starmer for criticising the Rwanda removal scheme, and claimed Labour supported “open-door immigration and unlimited asylum” putting it “on the side of the people smugglers”.
Starmer said: “If he was serious about stopping the boats, he’d actually steal our plan on stopping the boats, smash the gangs, sort out the returns and clear up this utter mess.”
