At yesterday’s Business Questions in the House of Commons, Tom Randall MP said: “One reason why the good people of Gedling voted to leave the European Union was to take back control of our borders. There have been several high-profile and complex challenges in doing that, be it dealing with the emergence of criminal gangs or complicated legal proceedings.”
Gedling’s Conservative Member of Parliament, Tom Randall went on to ask the Leader of the House of Commons, Rt Hon Penny Mordant MP, for a statement to set out the progress the Government have made on this issue since the UK left the European Union.
In response to Tom Randall MP, the Leader of the House of Commons said: “boat crossings are down by 33%; the legacy backlog is down by 42%; asylum decision processing has increased by 250%; returns are up by 29%; and immigrants are 43% less likely to be in receipt of any form of state benefits.
“Since we left the EU, we have been working to change our systems. In December 2020, we ended free movement—that was opposed by the Labour Party—and changed access to benefits. In April last year, we passed the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 to deter entry into the UK and to help us to remove people who have no right to be here. In December last year, we signed the deal with Albania, reducing the number of people coming here by 90%. In May, we introduced measures to reduce the rise in the number of students bringing dependants and to stop students switching out of the student route.
“In July, the Illegal Migration Act 2023 became law, although, again, it was opposed by the Labour party—70 times. Again, that legislation is helping us to remove people who should not be here and to speed up removals. In October, we opened a consultation on capping the numbers that we would take from safe and legal routes. More legislation will come to the Floor of this House imminently, particularly to enable the Rwanda plan to be put into full effect—no doubt, it will be opposed by the Labour party. Now that we have greater control, we should use those controls.”
Speaking after Business Questions, Tom said: “Like the majority of Gedling residents, I voted for the UK to leave the EU and one of my first votes in the House of Commons, as Gedling’s MP, was to get Brexit done and introduce a points-based immigration system.
“Since then, this Conservative Government has been making progress on stopping the boats and more will be done to stop them when new urgent legislation is introduced shortly. Labour will try to block this, making it absolutely clear that only the Conservatives are committed to taking back control of our borders.”
