{"id":108745,"date":"2025-05-17T10:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T10:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/108745\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T10:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T10:08:11","slug":"philps-taped-admission-of-big-brexit-drawback-on-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/108745\/","title":{"rendered":"Philp\u2019s taped admission of big Brexit drawback on immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The previous Conservative government, and the MP for Croydon South, knew for more than five years that leaving the EU would make it more difficult to deal with asylum seekers \u2013 but that\u2019s not what they said publicly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris Philp, the Croydon South MP and former Conservative government immigration minister, has known all along that Brexit has meant that Britain has lost control of its borders.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to Sky News, who last night broadcast a leaked recording of Philp, now the shadow Home Secretary, acknowledging that being outside of the European Union put Britain in a weaker position on immigration than previously.<\/p>\n

Boris Johnson, together with Philp and the rest of the rabid right, had campaigned for Brexit claiming it would mean \u201ctaking back control\u201d.<\/p>\n

In fact, as Philp has admitted in a private online meeting, the opposite was always the case. Britain\u2019s exit from the EU meant the end of UK participation in something called the Dublin agreement, or Dublin 3, which governs EU-wide asylum claims.<\/p>\n

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Being outside the EU meant that the UK \u201ccan\u2019t any longer rely on sending people back to the place where they first claimed asylum\u201d, Philp was recorded as saying to his meeting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Under the EU\u2019s Dublin regulation, people should be processed for asylum in the country at which they first entered the union. Britain is unable to participate in the Dublin agreement since its terms are only open to full members of the EU.<\/p>\n

In the leaked recording from the Tory briefing meeting, Philp appeared to suggest the scale of the problem surprised those in the Johnson government.<\/p>\n

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Online troll:<\/strong> the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp<\/p>\n

Perhaps under-occupied now he is out of government, Philp has taken on the role of online troll since the Conservatives were defeated at the General Election last July, posting almost daily tirades about small boats, Rwanda and paedophiles, often all in one tweet.<\/p>\n

What he was recorded as saying at an internal Conservative Zoom meeting last month, ahead of the local elections, provides proof that he and the Tories knew that their Brexit stance would make dealing with immigration harder, rather than provide greater control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we did check it out\u2026 [we] found that about half the people crossing the Channel had claimed asylum previously elsewhere in Europe,\u201d Philp said in his meeting.<\/p>\n

It now emerges that it has been Philp\u2019s and his Tory government\u2019s support of Brexit that has created a situation whereby none of these arrivals can lawfully be returned to France or other EU states.<\/p>\n

Philp has been saying one thing in public, while knowing the opposite to be true, for at least five years.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Philp said: \u201cThe Dublin regulations do have a number of constraints in them, which makes returning people who should be returned a little bit harder than we would like. Of course, come the January 1 [2021], we\u2019ll be outside of those Dublin regulations and the United Kingdom can take a fresh approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Brexit and the ending of the UK\u2019s part of the Dublin Agreement, Britain has to negotiate individual bilateral returns agreements with other nations.<\/p>\n

Last night, Sky News reported, \u201cIn the summer of 2020, Mr Johnson\u2019s spokesman criticised the \u2018inflexible and rigid\u2019 Dublin regulations, suggesting the exit from this agreement would be a welcome post-Brexit freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Philp\u2019s comments suggest a different view in private.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest admission came in a Tory Zoom briefing at the end of April, just ahead of the local elections. Philp was asked why countries like France continued to allow migrants to come to Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe migrants should claim asylum in the first safe place and that under European Union regulations, which is called the Dublin 3 regulation, the first country where they are [seeking] asylum is the one that should process their application,\u201d Philp said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNow, because we\u2019re out of the European Union now, we are out of the Dublin 3 regulations, and so we can\u2019t any longer rely on sending people back to the place where they first claimed asylum. When we did check it out, just before we exited the EU transitional arrangements on December 31, 2020, we did run some checks and found that about half the people crossing the channel had claimed asylum previously elsewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIn Germany, France, Italy, Spain, somewhere like that, and therefore could have been returned. But now we\u2019re out of Dublin, we can\u2019t do that, and that\u2019s why we need to have somewhere like Rwanda that we can send these people to as a deterrent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philp\u2019s enthusiasm for the Rwanda plan is somewhat undermined, not only because of its huge cost to the British tax-payer, but also because it has been blocked by the European Court of Human Rights. Not a single migrant, illegal or otherwise, was ever transferred to Rwanda, and the scheme was binned by Keir Starmer on entering Downing Street last year.<\/p>\n

Sky News reports that government ministers have confirmed the Labour government is discussing a returns agreement with the French that would involve both countries exchanging people seeking asylum.<\/p>\n

The Conservatives under new-ish leader Kemi BadEnoch, meanwhile, claim that they have plans to deal with immigration. Just like they told us they did when they were in government.<\/p>\n

A D V E R T I S E M E N T<\/strong><\/p>\n

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