I’VE said many times I wish the new Home Secretary well. It’s an important job and one I’m proud to have done.
But the first 50 days of Labour’s government has been a shocking succession of failures.
Scrapping the Rwanda partnership without the courtesy to tell that country’s government.
An amnesty for 100,000 asylum seekers we banned from staying.
A phantom border command with Labour’s choice rejecting the job.
Racist thugs are rightly jailed after rioting across the UK.
But we can’t tiptoe around underlying issues on immigration — the public’s top concern.
As Shadow Home Secretary, I’ll keep asking Yvette Cooper: “Where will you send failed asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran or Syria?”
But Labour don’t have a plan — and I don’t think they care.
They’re a soft touch on migration and out of touch with the public.
We shouldn’t forget Starmer’s on record saying a racist undercurrent permeates all immigration laws.
Labour ideologically opposes border control. But Conservatives know wanting border control isn’t racist.
Getting migration down has to be one of our party’s central missions.
If I’m elected leader it will be.
Allowing migration to rocket after Covid was a fatal mistake.
That’s why as Home Secretary I reformed our visa system to cut numbers within weeks.
And we’re seeing the fruits of those changes in the latest data.
Visas down. Illegal arrivals down. Small boat arrivals down.
Fewer asylum applications. Asylum grant rate cut — and more decisions made to smash the backlog and close 150 hotels.
Labour should continue this work.
But instead they’re doing the opposite.
The reforms I delivered are being undermined as the government begins discussions with the EU about increasing visas.
If you thought Starmer negotiated badly on pay deals for strikers just wait until you see his doormat approach to Brussels.
A Conservative Party under my leadership would regain control of our borders.
We’ll revive third safe country partnerships like Rwanda.
