Britain faces ‘migration emergency’, warns No10
BRITAIN is facing a ‘migration emergency’, Downing Street warned yesterday, as it emerged more than 500 migrants arrived on the day unelected peers again blocked the Safety Of Rwanda Bill.
Rishi Sunak’s spokesman expressed frustration at the House of Lords’ moves to water down the crucial immigration measures.
The running tally of arrivals across the Channel so far this year has now tipped over 4,000 – and is almost 10 per cent higher than during the same period last year.
The 4,043 arrivals up to Wednesday was 360 more than at the same point last year – and more than 800 higher than the equivalent in 2022, which went on to see a record annual total of
‘Get behind this Bill and stop the boats’
more than 45,700. The 519 small boat migrants who reached Dover on Wednesday – the day of the Lords votes – was also the highest daily total since December 2 last year.
At least three boatloads of migrants reached Britain yesterday carrying several hundred people, but final numbers had yet to be confirmed last night
The PM’s spokesman said: ‘The legislation is dealing with a migration emergency and we are introducing that legislation as soon as we possibly can to reduce the number of people taking the perilous journey across the Channel.’
He added that it was ‘frustrating’ that the Lords had not passed the legislation on Wednesday night. ‘It is exactly because we are still seeing people making this perilous journey across the Channel, including people in the last few days, that the PM wants parliamentarians across the House to get behind this Bill and to stop the boats,’ he added.
The latest Channel figures will put further pressure on peers who voted against the Bill, as Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt blamed Labour for delays in getting the measures through.
‘Let me be very clear I wish to blame Labour for this delay,’ she said during business questions in the Commons.
Labour said the delay was down to the Government.
Shadow Commons leader Lucy Powell said: ‘I know she will want to blame the Lords but it’s her timetable and it keeps getting stretched.
No 10 has insisted the delay to the Bill will make no difference to the timing of the first removals flight.
‘Whether it passes just before Easter or just after doesn’t affect our operational timelines,’ the spokesman said.
WHEN the Supreme Court threw out his original plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda, Rishi Sunak pledged emergency legislation to get the scheme off the ground.
So why is the Prime Minister giving MPs and peers time off to relax over Easter? He should make them sit until the Bill has cleared its final parliamentary hurdle.
The urgent need for this law was illustrated by the arrival of another 500 Channel migrants on Wednesday. And as the weather improves, many more will take their chances.
Labour denounces the Rwanda plan as an expensive gimmick, but what is its alternative? Answer: It hasn’t got one.
The truth is, if migrants fear they will end up in Africa, many would be incentivised to stay in France. If that happens, this evil trade might dry up – helping Mr Sunak deliver his ‘stop the boats’ promise.
Meanwhile, wreckers in the Lords are smugly satisfied at holding up the Rwanda Bill. But as their tactics put migrants in danger, it’s clear they are more interested in looking good, than doing good.