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  • 6/3/2025
Shadow Home Office Minister Matt Vickers has predicted the Labour Party will have to follow in the Tories' footsteps on its illegal immigration policy.Speaking on GB News, he said: “Actually, this hasn't been going on for hundreds of years in its current setting, it's a recent phenomenon. Globally, there are more people on the move than ever before.“It is a complete mess, whether it be legal migration or whether it be illegal migration. We saw legal migration starting to come down now as a result of measures we brought forward, when the Conservatives were in office, about stopping people bringing their mum and their dad and their gran, and everybody else, which was the right thing to do.“We should have seen in April the introduction of a threshold on salaries that required people to be earning £38,700 in order to be able to bring people with them.“But then on illegal migration, we're seeing record levels. People might have said, ‘this was terrible. It was broken. It wasn't working. We weren't fixing it.’ Actually, when the last government left office, the numbers were beginning to come down.“The number of people in hotels was coming down massively because we stopped opening hotels. But actually, we had a deterrent in place. Rwanda, or wherever it might be - the further away, the better.“But in real terms, it didn't matter. It was about the principle in law that if you arrived in this country illegally, you should be detained and you should be removed. You should either be sent back to your own country, as we did with Albania.“Albania was one of the top places from which people were arriving. All of a sudden, we started sending those people back and the numbers arriving went down by 93 per cent. It's not rocket science. If people arrive here and realise it's not worth their while they stop paying those heinous, vile people smugglers to smuggle them into the country.“Stop that motivation. If people realise that if they get in that boat they're not going to get to stay, they will stop coming. We were going to detain them. The legislation was in place, and the Labour party have ripped it all out.“They're going to have to start again in a few months’ time. They're going to realise this is a damned mess, and they're going to have to bring forward legislation to do exactly what we were doing.“It didn't matter where you were sending them, Rwanda was the catch all. So we were sending them back to where they came from, where we could get those agreements in place. But there are countries where you can't send them back and you need to find somewhere else.“So now those people who are going to be in Rwanda are in Redcar and Romford and Richmond and places across this country, because we're not sending them anywhere.“The current government have sent a message to the world. They've actually repealed legislation to allow people who arrive here illegally to become British citizens. If that isn't a flag to say, come to Britain, if that isn't the red carpet, what is?“We put forward amendments to that legislation on several things. The Labour Party brought forward this bill that removed all of the ability we had to detain and remove people who derived here illegally. It allowed people to become British citizens who had arrived here illegally.“We applied two major amendments, one of them being that if you committed any crime and you come to this country, you should be deported.“And secondly, we said we would disapply the Human Rights Act and interim judgments from the court.“They wouldn’t be here when they applied; we wouldn't allow interim judgments, so they would be removed."WATCH ABOVE.

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Transcript
00:00I mean, we're talking about hundreds of years of history in our relationship with Europe.
00:02Actually, this hasn't been going on for hundreds of years in its current setting.
00:05It's a recent phenomenon in that sense.
00:07Globally, there are more people on the move than ever before.
00:10It is a complete mess, whether it be legal migration or whether it be illegal migration.
00:14We saw legal migration starting to come down now as a result of measures we brought forward
00:18when the Conservatives were in office about stopping people bringing their mum and their dad and their gran
00:23and everybody else, all these dependents that we were bringing, which was the right thing to do.
00:26Again, we should have seen in April the introduction of a threshold on salaries
00:30that required people to be earning £38,000, well, £38,000, £700 and something,
00:36in order to be able to bring people with them, to pay their way, to pay into the system
00:39and all of the costs that come with that.
00:42But then on illegal migration, we're seeing it at record levels.
00:45People might have said this was terrible, it was broken, it wasn't working, we weren't fixing it.
00:49Actually, when the last government left office, the numbers were beginning to come down.
00:53The number of people in hotels was coming down massively
00:55because we stopped opening hotels and we said that isn't a thing.
00:57But actually, we had a deterrent in place.
01:01Rwanda, wherever it might be, actually, everyone talks about Rwanda and says,
01:04oh, it's far, far away.
01:05The further away, the better.
01:06The further away, the better.
01:07But in real terms, it didn't matter.
01:09It was about the principle in law that if you arrived in this country illegally,
01:12you should be detained and you should be removed.
01:15You should either be sent back to your own country, as we did with Albania.
01:18We saw Albania were one of the top places from which people were arriving.
01:22All of a sudden, we started sending those people back and the numbers of arriving went down by 93%.
01:28You know, it's not rocket science.
01:30If people arrive here and realise it's not worth their while,
01:32they stop paying those heinous, vile people smugglers to smuggle them into the country.
01:36And that's one of the really important things, isn't it?
01:38That the people bringing them over are evil people smugglers, criminals who are making a lot of money out of this.
01:45And that the way to smash the gangs is actually to stop the incentive for coming here.
01:49Stop that motivation.
01:50If people realise that they're getting that boat and they're not going to get to stay, they will stop coming.
01:55We were going to detain them.
01:56The legislation was in place.
01:57And actually, the Labour Party have ripped all that out.
01:59They're going to have to start again.
02:00In a few months' time, they're going to realise this is a damned mess
02:04and they're going to have to bring forward legislation to do exactly what we were doing.
02:07It didn't matter where you were sending them.
02:08Rwanda was the catch-all, so we were sending them back to where they came from,
02:11where we could get those agreements in place.
02:12But there are countries where you can't send them back and you need to find somewhere else.
02:15So now, those people who are going to be in Rwanda are in Redcar and Romford and Richmond
02:19and places across this country because we're not sending them anywhere.

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