Josh Simons MP: Being Serious about Migration

Too often, politicians have told people they are wrong for believing too many people are arriving in our country. But every week good, ordinary, people tell me they worry we have lost control over who is entering Britain. They are right to be concerned, because the migration crisis we are experiencing will only grow as the world becomes more insecure.

For those who voted for Brexit to take back control of our borders, the last government did the opposite. They broke our border security and asylum systems and set target after target without any plan to achieve them. They took us for idiots.

Since July, we have overseen the biggest deportation flights on record. More than 13,500 people have been deported, putting us on track to have the highest returns since 2018 within six months of being elected. I am not ashamed of saying it clearly – we are enforcing the law, sending back those who have no right to be here. We’re also taking action against people working here illegally, with arrests for this up a third on the same period last year. But we are also tackling those arrivals at their root.

The Border Security Commander, an ex-police chief who led policing for the Queen’s funeral, is bringing together the UK Border Force and National Intelligence Agencies to smash the small boat gangs. Change won’t overnight but disrupting these gangs like terrorists will make a difference. Like organising terror plots, this is a matter of national security. Across the world, we’re signing new agreements that will break up smuggling gangs – with Iraq, Germany, Bulgaria, our Calais Group partners, and the G7. Organised crime groups have already been convicted and dismantled, and we’re training sniffer dogs to detect dingies on the French coast. We’re putting our money where our mouth is, with £150 million to build a 300 strong Border Security Command, 100 specialist investigators, and new technologies at the border.

We are clearing the backlog which piled up under the Conservatives, because we will no longer accept paying millions of pounds to put asylum seekers in hotels – people should get a decision, and if they have no right to be here, be made to leave. This must sit alongside investing in British workers.

We need to build the skills needed for jobs in the UK, which we’re doing through Skills England and boosting Further Education funding. Building more homes, boosting manufacturing, staffing our care sector, and growing our food, all need home-grown skills. As your MP, I will always speak my mind on this subject, as I do on many others, because I believe we only have a secure country if we have secure borders. The capacity to choose who enters a country and who stays is a fundamental part of democracy – I have always believed that and always will. That’s why I will continue to push the Government to take the action needed to get a grip.