James Grundy MP: ​We will stop illegal Channel crossings

​I last wrote about this piece of legislation in December, where I set out my position on this important Bill, which I voted for last Wednesday.

The Prime Minister has committed to dealing with the issue of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel in small boats and I firmly believe we must deliver on that.

We are making progress with the number of arrivals being reduced by a third, whilst in other European countries illegal immigration has increased by up to 80 per cent.

The backlog of asylum claimants has been reduced from 92,000 to less than 5,000 and we removed over 22,000 illegal immigrants last year.

We must go further. To fully solve this problem we need a strong deterrent.

As our deal with Albania shows, deterrents work. The number of Albanian illegal immigrants arriving has been reduced almost to zero.

Only by removing the prospect of illegal immigrants settling in the UK can we control our borders, save lives at sea and break the criminal gangs running the people smuggling racket. The legislation will make it clear and unambiguous that Parliament confirms Rwanda to be safe, notwithstanding any other interpretation of international law by any court or tribunal preventing the courts from second-guessing Parliaments’ intention.

Furthermore the Bill reasserts that Parliament is sovereign and that the validity of any Act of Parliament is unaffected by international law.

I am aware that some colleagues have expressed concerns that despite the welcome and robust nature of this legislation, loopholes may remain that could be exploited by unscrupulous lawyers or criminal smuggling gangs.

I supported amendments brought forward by my colleagues Bill Cash MP and Robert Jenrick MP in this regard.

Whilst the amendments did not pass, I and other colleagues have made clear to the Government that they must bring forward further measures if such abuses arise.

Finally, I welcome the clear statement from the Prime Minister that he will not allow a foreign court to block this policy and that if the European Court of Human Rights chooses to intervene, against the express wishes of Parliament, he is prepared to do whatever is necessary to get flights off the ground.

We must do whatever it takes to tackle illegal Channel crossings.

When people know that, if they come here illegally, they won’t get to stay, we will break the smuggling gangs and modern slavers running this criminal and cruel syndicate.