Suella Braverman says 'enough is enough' as she unveils crack down on illegal migration

Suella Braverman has vowed tough new laws to combat illegal immigration will send a message to Channel migrants: “Do not get into that flimsy dinghy.”

In a Commons statement, the Home Secretary said the new Illegal Immigration Bill would place a duty on her to remove migrants who arrived illegally and “radically narrow” the number of human rights, asylum or modern slavery challenges and appeals that could suspend their deportation.

She told MPs that deterrence was the key theme running through the measures. “We want to send the message loudly and clearly to those people smugglers, to those people thinking about crossing the channel: Do not do it,” she said.

“Do not hand over your life savings, do not get into that flimsy dinghy, do not risk your life, because you will not be entitled to a life in the UK."

Mrs Braverman denied that it was “bigoted” or “racist” to take a tough approach to illegal migration abusing the UK’s asylum system, adding that it would be a “betrayal” not to tackle the “waves of illegal migrants breaching our border”.

'Taken for a ride'

She said Britain had been “taken for a ride” by asylum seekers and that existing asylum laws were not “fit for purpose” to deal with “flagrant” breaches of the law by those crossing the English Channel.

The Bill will enable any illegal arrivals to be detained without bail or judicial review for at least 28 days until they can be removed either to their home country or to a third safe country such as Rwanda where they can claim asylum.

Only unaccompanied children or migrants who were unfit to fly, or who would be at risk of serious and irreversible harm, will be able to delay their removal. Once migrants are removed they will have no right to return to the UK ever again, or to claim citizenship or settlement.

The Government will take powers to disapply the Human Rights Act to prevent courts blocking removals of illegal migrants and will draw up proposals that could allow it to ignore injunctions by the European Court of Human Rights which blocked the first deportation flight to Rwanda.

Mrs Braverman said the Bill would also disqualify illegal entrants from using modern slavery rules to prevent their  removal, amid claims the law was being abused to block deportations.

She acknowledged that these tough measures meant the Bill might not be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), raising the prospect of legal challenges.

But the Home Secretary said the UK would always seek to uphold international law. “I am confident that this Bill is compatible with international obligations," she said.

She also said that there would be a cap on the number of refugees that Britain would take each year and new safe and legal routes.

"The British people are famously a fair and patient people, but their sense of fair play has been tested beyond its limits and they see the country taken for a ride,” she told MPs.

"Their patience has run out. The law-abiding, patriotic majority have said enough is enough, this cannot and will not continue. Their Government, this Government, must act decisively, must act with determination, must act with compassion, must act with proportion.

"So, make no mistake, this Conservative Government, this Conservative Prime Minister, will act now to stop the boats.”

Yvette Cooper, Labour's shadow home secretary, branded the Bill a "con" and described the plans as "Groundhog Day" as campaigners said the proposed policy would be unworkable.

'Labour would prefer to write letters'

But Mrs Braverman accused Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, of wrongly thinking “it's bigoted to say that we've got too much illegal migration abusing our system.

“It's because Labour MPs would prefer to write letters stopping the removal of foreign national offenders, it's because the Labour Party would prefer to vote against our measures to penalise foreign national offenders, to streamline our asylum system.

“Labour are against deterring people who would come here illegally. They are against detaining people who do come here illegally. And they are against deporting people who are here illegally.

"That means they are for this situation getting worse and worse. Perhaps that's fine for the Leader of the Opposition and most of the Labour frontbench, but it's not their schools, it's not their GPs, it's not their public services, housing and hotels filling up with illegal migrants.”

In response to Labour MP Khalid Mahmood saying she was trying to hold on to Red Wall seats by deploying "xenophobia and racism", Mrs Braverman said: "It is irresponsible to suggest that someone who wants to control our borders, someone who wants to say that the numbers are out of control and we need a firm line – a compassionate line, but a firm line on migration – is racist. That is irresponsible, it is wrong and it shouldn’t be put forward.”

Rishi Sunak has made stopping the boats one of his five key priorities for 2023. He will join President Emmanuel Macron at a bilateral summit in Paris on Friday in an effort to secure a “substantial” increase in officers and surveillance equipment to prevent migrants leaving the French beaches.