Rishi Sunak says under-pressure Home Secretary Suella Braverman is ‘getting on with the job’ and ‘on the same page’ as him in tackling migrant crisis as he defends asylum chaos in fiery PMQs clash with Keir Starmer
- Sunak faced Labour calls to sack the Home Secretary in a fiery PMQs
- And he was forced to admit that ‘not enough’ cases were being processed
- Home Office processed 4% of asylum claims from Channel migrants last year
Rishi Sunak again defended under-pressure Suella Braverman today as he came under pressure to take more action to ease the Channel migrant crisis.
Mr Sunak faced Labour calls to sack the Home Secretary in a fiery Prime Minister’s Questions session today.
And he was forced to admit that ‘not enough’ cases were being processed, amid a massive backlog of people at holding centres in Kent.
Taxpayers are currently paying nearly £7million a day to house tens of thousands of asylum seekers in hotels after the Home Office managed to process just four per cent of asylum claims from people who crossed the Channel last year.
As Labour targeted the Government over the situation on the south coast, party leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned how a broken asylum system could be anyone’s fault but the Tories.
And senior opposition backbencher Meg Hillier asked the PM: ‘His Home Secretary has leaked information, is overseeing chaos in the Home Office and has broken the law. What will she actually have to do to get the sack?’
With Mrs Braverman sitting close to him, Mr Sunak replied: ‘The Home Secretary made an error of judgment but she recognised her mistake and took accountability for her actions.’
He said Ms Braverman has set out ‘transparently, in detail a full sequence of events’, adding: ‘She is now getting on with the job – cracking down on crime, defending our borders, something I know the party opposite has no interest in supporting.’
He added: ‘It’s that simple, the Home Secretary and I, when it comes to tackling migration, reducing migration, we are on the same page. That party’s policy is a blank page.’
Mr Sunak faced Labour calls to sack the Home Secretary in a fiery Prime Minister’s Questions session today.
With Mrs Braverman sitting close to him, Mr Sunak replied: ‘The Home Secretary made an error of judgment but she recognised her mistake and took accountability for her actions.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned how a broken asylum system could be anyone’s fault but the Tories.
The Prime Minister has acknowledged ‘not enough’ asylum claims have been processed.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked him in the Commons: ‘Of all the people who arrived in small boats last year, how many asylum claims have been processed?’
Rishi Sunak replied: ‘Not enough is the answer, very straightforwardly, not enough. That’s what we are going to fix. But the honourable gentleman raises this question, what do we do? We have increased the number of processing officials by 80%.
‘We are putting an extra 500 more by next March. But if he really was serious about fixing this problem, then he would acknowledge that we do need to tackle the issue of people putting spurious, spurious claims, spurious repeated last-minute claims to frustrate the process. That’s how we’ll tackle the system.’
Sir Keir said: ‘No-one wants open borders on this side of the House. They have lost control of borders on their side of the House.
‘Four prime ministers in five years. It’s the same old, same old, he stands there and tries to pass the blame.
‘If the asylum system is broken, and his lot have been in power for 12 years, how can it be anyone’s fault but theirs?’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: ‘People rightly want to see us getting a grip on migration and our borders. Let’s look at the record … he voted against the Nationality and Borders Bill, he said he would scrap the Rwanda partnership, he opposed the ending of free movement of people.
‘Border control is a serious, complex issue, but not only does the party opposite not have a plan, they have opposed every single measure we have taken to solve the problem, you can’t attack a plan if you don’t have a plan.’
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