THE government’s new “one in, one out” deal with France over illegal migrants will not stop small boats crossing the Channel, according to Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.
Speaking to GB News, she said: “I just don’t think this scheme is going to stop the crisis that we’ve got. We need to stop the boats. This feels like a scheme that’s just having an exchange with France.
“One in, one out does not reduce numbers. It does not reduce the number of people who actually want to come to the UK, and 50 people a week, that means 94% of the people coming each week get to stay. That’s not good enough…
“What it means is that somebody could be returned to France and then try again, so they could be swapping the exact same person while we’re taking in lots of different people. It doesn’t work. It’s not going to stop the boats.
“The only thing that would do was the Rwanda plan. We had a plan already last summer. After the election, Labour came in, they scrapped the Rwanda plan. Everybody who came to the country on small boats would have been processed in Rwanda. If they were genuine asylum seekers, they would get to stay in Rwanda, get asylum there, and if they want, they’d be sent back home.
“Now, Labour has got no plan. They said they were going to smash the gangs. Remember, that was their big plan. Nothing is being smashed except their reputation.”
Asked if the police should reveal the ethnicity of suspected sex offenders, she said: “Yvette Cooper said that they wanted to see the nationality of people being brought out more. I think that’s fine.
“I think both ethnicity and nationality, they’re not the same thing should be out there. We need more transparency across the board, not just for suspects or perpetrators, but also for the victims of crime as well.
“Because if you remember with the grooming gang scandal, it was the fact that people didn’t want to talk about it being mostly white British girls and mostly men of a particular region in Pakistan carrying out these crimes. A lot of stuff was swept under the carpet.
“Transparency is a good thing, and we did quite a lot when we were in government to get transparency. I think there’s a lot more that needs to be done, and I’m all for that.
“We are the party of law and order. Lots of people can have press conferences about law and order, but we’re the only party that actually knows what it is we’re talking about.”
On Reform UK’s plans for prisons, she said: “I was gobsmacked when I heard that. Men should not be in women’s prisons. We have dealt with this issue again and again and again, and some people still don’t get it.
“I remember when I had to intervene when Scotland was putting rapists in women’s prisons, we had to bring in a Section 35 order. I have been very consistent. The Conservative Party is the only party that will protect women’s spaces. But I was also amazed at some of the things she [Vanessa Frake] said in her interview about sentencing.
“She’s not really in favour of longer sentences. She wants to see more community sentencing. That’s not a party of law and order. And what I was most surprised at was she said all those things, and Nigel Farage sort of agreed with her and had to row back 24 hours later.
“Reform does not have plans or policies. They just have announcements, and when you interrogate them properly, they start to unravel.”
