Total incompetence on immigration
REGARDING a piece I came across recently by West MP Simon Jupp on “stopping the boats”, the Conservative MP for East
Devon conveniently ignored two fundamental facts. The majority of those who reached Britain by this means had their claims for asylum accepted. There are currently no legal means for genuine asylum seekers to reach Britain and indeed the Illegal Migration Act now prevents those coming on small boats from seeking asylum – they are just detained until they can be sent to a “safe” country.
Sunak’s Rwanda scheme damages Britain’s reputation internationally and calling Rwanda a safe country has required the equivalent of passing a law to say 2 + 2 = 5. It will cost £2 million per migrant deported and is unlikely to be an effective deterrent.
The £8 million a day cost of housing asylum seekers rests at the feet of the Government as they’ve created a massive backlog of claims and during the process applicants cannot work. As one example of just how beneficial to Britain refugees can be, there are currently around 2,000 refugee doctors working in the NHS. Until Sunak started talking up “stop the boats” in October
2022, immigration of all kinds was quite low down on the list of British voters’ concerns. Even now, the cost of living and the NHS are far more important. However, Sunak’s relentless message means that 45% of voters think that most migrants to the UK are illegal. Legal immigration actually accounts for 20 times more arrivals in the UK than small boats.
Since 2010 there’ve been repeated Tory promises to bring down immigration to “tens of thousands a year”. However, the latest annual figures showed net migration up at 672,000. Ironically, Mr Jupp promotes immigration as a way of solving government-generated staffing crises in sectors such as nursing, where disastrous policies have decimated recruitment and retention; and social care, where repeatedly failed Tory promises to sort the massive issues mean there are 150,000 vacancies.
We need a general election now! Terry Riordan
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