Chris Philp: There has been a migration crisis this summer and the Government are not up to tackling it

Chris Philp is Shadow Home Secretary and Member of Parliament for Croydon South.

Our country faces an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis – and the public is right to be angry and alarmed about it.

A new approach that is both radical and properly thought out is needed to fix this.

So far this year over 25,000 illegal immigrants – mostly young men – have crossed the channel. This is by some margin the worst year in history.

And we now know that the nationalities crossing are, on average, around 20 times more likely to commit crime. Afghans, for example, are 24 times more likely to commit sex offences.  We have seen asylum seekers recently charged with raping, sexually assaulting or trying to kidnap girls as young as just eight years old.

This isn’t just a border crisis, it’s a public safety crisis as well – especially for women and girls.  Those who peacefully protest against this outrage are right to do so.

In 2023, the last full year of the Conservative government, we got channel crossings down by 30 per cent.  And by the summer of 2024, after multiple legal rulings and passing legislation to over-ride the courts, the Rwanda plan was ready to start.  Every illegal immigrant would have been immediately removed with pretty much no opportunity to appeal.  Within months, this would have deterred the crossings.  A similar approach worked in Australia around 12 years ago, as part of their Operation Sovereign Borders.

But the incoming Labour government scrapped Rwanda just days before the first flight was due to take off, with no replacement plan.  The result has been surging numbers of illegal immigrants, with this year 50 per cent up on the year before. Labour’s laughable claim to smash the gangs lies in tatters – and you will notice Keir Starmer doesn’t mention it any more. Consequently, the numbers in asylum hotels have gone up since the election, costing hard-working taxpayers (many of whom could not afford to stay in those same hotels) billions.

The Labour government is also busy repealing most of Illegal Migration Act 2023, which created a duty to remove those who entered unlawfully and prevented illegal immigrants from ever getting citizenship. Labour is also abolishing the strong IMA powers to use scientific age assessments (such as wrist x-rays) to stop illegal immigrants in their mid-20s getting away with pretending to be under 18.

They are also scrapping the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024 which provided the legal basis for the scheme. As President Trump looks set to start sending illegal immigrants to Rwanda to stay in the very facilities we paid to set up, I suspect Labour will come to regret this idiocy.

The result of Labour’s approach is as predictable as it is dangerous. No deterrent, no significant removals and no confidence that the rules are being enforced. As the National Crime Agency warned, without a deterrent the problem will escalate.

Last week I went to see this chaos first-hand. I sailed out on the Channel in a fishing boat on the very day that Labour’s much-vaunted French returns deal came into force. Within half an hour of arriving off the French coast, I observed two dinghies each stuffed full of about 80 illegal immigrants crossing into British waters. French vessels escorted them and even retrieved the life jackets for future use. Labour’s deal was clearly not having any deterrent effect at all.

That’s no surprise. The deal has no numbers, but reporting suggests only 50 a week will get sent back.  That amounts to just 6 percent of arrivals – so 94 per cent get to stay. This is no deterrent at all. It is 17 in, one out.  And there are many legal loopholes so vexatious claims to be under 18 or made-up modern slavery and human rights claims can endlessly delay or even prevent removal of the tiny numbers involved.

For those being sent to the UK in return, France will not provide us with any information it holds about criminal convictions, extremist links or even terrorism. Yet the UK must still receive them.

While Labour’s position is one of quiet surrender, Reform UK have chosen a different path: loud noise without a plan. Nigel Farage has already said that mass deportations are not his goal. His party promised a full immigration plan way back in May and there has still been none. All we have seen from Reform is a string of vague unfunded pronouncements and a conspicuous silence when it comes to detail. The public deserve better than posturing.

But we must also be honest.  Previous Conservative governments did not take enough radical steps to stop illegal immigration.   We were too deferential to expansive court judgments which over-rode parliament and to instruments such as Tony Blair’s Human Rights Act.

We must now be far more radical and sweep all this nonsense away.  Protecting our borders and protecting our citizens must be our overwhelming priority – above everything else, including the supposed human rights of illegal immigrants who are exploiting our weakness and foreign citizens who commit appalling crimes.

We have already proposed concrete, workable policies to restore control. Under our Deportation Bill, those who enter illegally and all foreign criminals will be removed – no ifs, no bits.  Any country refusing to take back its own nationals will face visa sanctions.

We will disapply the Human Rights Act for all immigration matters to end the madness of courts preventing the deportation of illegal immigrants and foreign criminals on grounds that obviously defy commons sense.

We will raise the residency requirement for Indefinite Leave to Remain from five to ten years and refuse ILR to anyone who has claimed benefits or used social housing during the entire qualification period.

We will tighten visa rules for family entry, with much higher income thresholds and more rigorous verification of spousal claims. Exploitative first-cousin marriages will not be accepted and we will cap family route numbers at far lower levels than recently seen.

We will introduce a binding annual cap on legal migration, voted on each year by Parliament and set far, far lower than recent levels.

These are carefully thought-out plans backed by the resolve to implement them.

We are also taking on the legal machinery that has enabled this erosion of national authority. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was meant to uphold democratic values. But in practice, it is now being used to block deportations even in cases involving convicted sex offenders, gang members, and violent criminals.

Our Lawfare Commission will examine how to restore legal sovereignty. If leaving the ECHR is necessary, then we will do it – but the plan must be set out carefully and thoughtfully. We will be making an announcement in the coming weeks.

The choice is now unavoidable. Labour has abandoned border control in favour of political convenience. Reform has no deliverable plan. Only the Conservatives are prepared to take the decisions that will restore full border control.

Our overwhelming national interest demands action that is radical and that is also properly thought out.  Only the Conservatives, under new leadership, can deliver this.