Keir Starmer accused of ‘making immigration worse’ after scrapping Tory measures: ‘You NEED a deterrent!’
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of “making immigration worse” for Britain after scrapping the measures put in place by the outgoing Conservatives.
Since Starmer won his landslide election in July, over 5000 migrants have made the illegal crossing via the Channel into Britain.
However, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged a large-scale crack down on the rising numbers and claimed Labour will deport more than 14,000 migrants by the end of 2024.
Outlining her plans in Parliament, Cooper told MPs: “Our new Border Security Command will work with European enforcement agencies to find every route in to smash the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk.”
Speaking to GB News, former Conservative MP Damian Green warned Labour that they “need a deterrent” similar to that of the Rwanda scheme in order to successfully tackle migration.
When asked if he is “optimistic” about Labour’s plans, Green told GB News: “No – this government will benefit from the decisions taken by the previous government about legal migration, such as family visas, that’s reducing the numbers.
“But on illegal migration, on the small boats, everything this Government is doing is likely to make it worse.”
Highlighting the scrapping of the Rwanda scheme, which was successfully legislated just before Labour came into power, Green claimed that Starmer’s Government “have got nothing to replace it”.
Green said: “It seems to me that they’ve cancelled the Rwanda scheme and they’ve got nothing to replace it.
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“They keep talking tough about having more people in some border command here. That’s fine, but actually all this criminality is happening in other countries where the British police’s writ doesn’t run.
“So that’s pretty second order stuff, you need some deterrent.”
Turning the discussion to the state of the Conservative Party, host Olivia Utley questioned Green on whether the party is “waiting for a new leader” before becoming an “effective opposition”.
Green responded: “When you’re having a leadership campaign, it is quite difficult to prosecute normal opposition politics.
“And also, nobody wants to listen to an opposition party that’s just lost a general election big time. So let’s be realistic about this.”
Green was also pressed on who he believes out of the hopeful candidates is best to lead the Conservatives following Rishi Sunak’s reign.
He revealed: “I hope that the next leader is going to be Tom Tugendhat. I think Tom has got background in the military, he’s absolutely up there on old security affairs, which is what really matters in a difficult and increasingly dangerous world.
“But also he’s producing domestic policies that I think are really interesting.”