11 Mar STOPPING SMALL BOATS CROSSING THE CHANNEL IS A ‘HUGE PRIORITY’ SAYS MINISTER
HOUSING Minister Alex Norris has said that stopping migrants illegally entering the UK in small boats is a “huge priority” for the government.
He said on GB News: “We’ve inherited a broken legacy but we’re taking actions that will bear fruit.
‘We’ve done more returns, as you know, significant numbers returned, 19,000 people, 3,000 foreign criminals. We’ve done the biggest, four of the biggest deportation flights that we’ve seen for very many years.
“We’re, of course, working on the continent to smash the gangs. That was going to be work that took time to bear fruit.
“You’ve had the French interior minister saying that Britain is taking back control. That’s what we’re doing. It will take time to bear fruit. It is a huge priority. That’s what we’re working on.
“Well, I know that GB News viewers have had, from the previous government, ministers one after one come in front of the cameras and make grandiose promises that they didn’t keep.
“What I’m saying is we’re going to keep our borders secure. Our long-term actions are going to pay off and pay off soon. I don’t want to give a date or a number to that…”
Pressed on when the government’s policies would produce results, he said: “What I can say is, it’s a crucial underpinning of our plan for change as a government.
“It’s something we’re working on every day and, as I say, they can already see the actions that we’ve made with regard to deportations. Under the previous government, there was a 70% fall by the end in the processing of applications.
“We’ve reversed that virtually entirely. So, those are real things that have happened in the here and now and will bear fruit.”
On reports that a Hamas-linked Palestinian gunman has entered the country on a small boat, he said: “ I can’t comment on that individual case. I can say, though, that the Home Office takes any threats exceptionally seriously.
“Our intelligence services work very hard to detect as well. That’s what they’ll be doing. But I can’t say any more on that specific case, right?”
He added: “I can say that we are concerned that there are gaps in legislation that mean that there are people can do harmful things outside and before that sometimes our legal framework doesn’t cover.
“So, we’re looking at how we can use our borders bill, which is going through Parliament at the moment, in order to close that loophole.”
