THE government’s latest immigration plan will do nothing to stop small boats crossing the Channel, according to Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick.
He told GB News: “I watched Keir Starmer’s press conference yesterday, and frankly, I didn’t believe a word of it. I don’t think your viewers would, I don’t think my constituents would.
“It looked like a hostage situation where he was reading out words that somebody else had written for him. We know what he believes, his life, his career, his whole world view is about open borders.
“He’s just another politician telling lies, saying that he thinks the public wants to hear but not taking any action. Nothing he said yesterday is going to stop the boats.
“It’s not going to bring down legal migration to the historic levels that we want to see. It’s not going to get the one million people in our country who are here illegally out of our country, deport them. It’s not going to get the 12,000 foreign criminals in our prisons, out of our prisons, out of our country.
“What we have to do is take serious action. No more lies, serious action. What we’re saying is that a legally binding cap [is needed] so that people can have confidence that this time people actually mean it.
“And secondly, we need to ensure that we change those human rights laws and have the Human Rights Act cut out so no more vexatious claims, no more fake actions by illegal migrants and their lawyers.
“You can get those people out of our country and end the merry-go-round of ludicrous legal actions that are frustrating the system today.”
He added: “Keir Starmer is serially dishonest. He lied and lied at the general election. He said he wasn’t going to raise taxes, and then he went and did it. And on this, just look at his life.
“This is the man who voted against every piece of border control legislation. He said that border control is basically racist. He wrote letters trying to frustrate the removal of dangerous criminals from this country back home, to their own countries.
“He stood to be leader of the Labour Party on a platform of restoring free movement and said that immigration was an unalloyed good for this country. You can’t believe a word he says, and nobody does believe him.
“He’s just reading out the lines that someone else has written for him, and it’s just going to perpetuate the incredible levels of anger and frustration there are in this country right now about politicians who make promises and break them on immigration.
“Just get out of Westminster and hear what the public feel on this issue. It is time for action. That is what the public want now.
“Let’s get immigration back down to the levels that we enjoyed as a country for decades before Tony Blair changed all of that, because it’s putting massive pressure on housing, on public services. It’s undercutting the wages of British workers and making this country poorer, and it’s making us less united.
“The only thing, frankly, I agree with Keir Starmer on is his belief, his sense that we are living in an increasingly disunited country. That is the truth.
“People are feeling disorientated by the fact that some communities are changing beyond all recognition. The pace of change is too fast. It’s got to change.”
