Labour’s plan to solve the migrant crisis is to lay out the red carpet, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

At the end of this week the Home Office will publish its quarterly figures on both legal and illegal migration.

So this Thursday will be a very important day.

We can expect legal migration to be down, mainly because of policies put in place by the previous Conservative government, but illegal migration, or as the new Labour government likes to call it, irregular migration, to be up.

You may remember that Labour, appearing to possess magical powers, promised to abolish the migrant hotel regime.

And yet it now confesses to have opened more hotels than it has closed. Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Yvette Cooper blamed the Tories.

And clearing the backlog is Labour’s strategy for solving the migrant crisis.

Indeed it has announced millions in legal aid for migrants awaiting their asylum applications.

But remember “clearing the backlog” is a euphemism for letting the vast majority of those who apply.

Under the Refugee Convention, an estimated three quarters of a billion people qualify for refugee status in the UK. This means that the overwhelming majority of people who apply for asylum will be granted it.

Fast tracking applications means fast tracking approvals, and fast tracking approvals means incentivising more people to cross the channel.

Not only has Labour removed the only deterrent against crossing the channel – the Rwanda plan, and not only has it decriminalised channel crossings but it now appears to be encouraging more people to cross by opening more hotels and giving asylum to nearly everyone who applies.

Put simply, Labour’s plan to solve the migrant crisis is to lay out the red carpet and say “come on in, the water’s lovely”.