Sir Tony Blair has put himself at odds with Sir Keir Starmer by arguing that boat migrants should not be allowed to claim asylum – the position adopted by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
The former premier says in a new book that spiralling levels of immigration will not be tackled unless potential arrivals realise there is not a back-door route to British citizenship through refugee law.
Mrs Badenoch included a ban on asylum claims for illegal entrants in a raft of new immigration policies set out at the Tory conference this month. They include a US-style ‘Removals Force’ to hunt down and deport 750,000 migrants.
Sir Keir remains committed to current asylum laws – although he has been forced by Nigel Farage‘s surge in the polls into promising greater restrictions.
Sir Tony’s view is quoted by Taxpayers’ Alliance founder Matthew Elliott in his new book Prosperity Through Growth. Sir Tony compares Joe Biden‘s laissez-faire approach to migration amnesties unfavourably with Donald Trump‘s zero-tolerance approach.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Even Tony Blair can see Labour‘s open borders asylum policy is a red carpet across the Channel. When you tell the world that anyone who arrives illegally can still claim asylum, the crossings will never stop.
‘This is why the Conservative border plan will end asylum claims for all illegal entrants. It’s common sense: Stop the pull factor that lets migrants make bogus claims and stay in the UK for the rest of their lives.
‘Unlike Labour, our plan is tough and deliverable: Leave the European Convention on Human Rights, remove all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival and end the merry-go-round of appeals. That is how we stop this madness. But Starmer doesn’t have the backbone to do this.’
Sir Tony Blair (above) has put himself at odds with Sir Keir Starmer by arguing that boat migrants should not be allowed to claim asylum
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch (above) included a ban on asylum claims for illegal entrants in a raft of new immigration policies set out at the Tory conference this month
Critics are likely to seize on Blair’s words by pointing out that his government presided over rocketing levels of immigration – which was later revealed to be part of a deliberate plot by No 10 to – in the words of Blair adviser Andrew Neather – ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’ in a move to permanently change British society.
Mr Elliott also spoke to Boris Johnson for his book – and the former Prime Minister revealed he had ‘kept secret’ his discovery of a rare newt after a battle to win planning permission for a swimming pool at his Oxfordshire home had been jeopardised by newt-protection laws.
Mr Johnson told Mr Elliott: ‘I built a swimming pool and I had this thing with newts. I had to build little newt motels for them.
‘The environmental impact guys assess whether the water or the property might be hospitable to newts. If it is, then you have to build these structures.
‘But they never found any newts. I did. I found one in my basement, which I kept secret. It was an enormous black great crested newt.’
Mr Johnson told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I wasn’t doing anything to the part of the property where I found the newt, so no newt protection was needed.’
Share or comment on this article:
Blair backs Kemi on migration by arguing small-boat arrivals should not be able to claim asylum