LABOUR will give nearly 100,000 asylum seekers “effective amnesty” under new immigration plans, the Tories claim.
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly says those earmarked for the Rwanda deportation scheme will be fast-tracked to stay here.
He took aim at Labour counterpart Yvette Cooper as she laid out the new Government’s plans on immigration — and told of the Tories’ £700million spend on the axed Rwanda scheme.
Around 12,000 migrants from Iran, Syria and Afghanistan stuck in the system will not be returned to their unsafe homes.
Mr Cleverly asked Ms Copper where such people would go, saying: “Has she started negotiations on returns agreements with the Taliban? Or the Ayatollahs of Iran?”
He also said: “Labour’s plan amounts to doing less than we were doing when we were in government and merely changing the signs above a few desks at the Home Office.”
The Government will speed up the claims of 90,000 people who arrived illegally after last March — when a law came in that banned them from claiming asylum — and were listed for deportation to Rwanda.
Home Secretary Ms Cooper accused the Tories of creating a “asylum Hotel California” where people arrive but never leave.
She wants to tweak law changes made by Rishi Sunak so those arriving from safe countries will have asylum claims prioritised — saving £7billion in the next decade.
Ms Cooper called the spend on Rwanda the “most shocking waste of taxpayer money” — and said the Tories planned to splash £10billion on the deal.
She added that cooperation with European cops was “too limited”, and warned: “I’m extremely concerned that high levels of dangerous crossings we have inherited are likely to persist through the summer.”
Meanwhile, Ms Cooper and Mr Cleverly are today set to debate the King’s Speech.
