I supported the Government last Thursday in seeing the Immigration Bill pass through the House of Commons. The Bill will allow the Government better control of our borders by doing the following things:
- Reforming the removals and appeals system, making it easier and quicker to remove those with no right to be here;
- Ending the abuse of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act – the right to respect for private and family life;
- Preventing illegal immigrants accessing and abusing public services or the labour market.
The Bill also gives the Home Secretary the power to cancel the British passports of any naturalised citizen who is judged to be acting in a way seriously prejudicial to the national good – so that anyone the Government knows is involved in terrorism can no longer hide behind a British passport.
When the Bill becomes law this will be another important milestone in this Government’s robust efforts to bring net migration to the UK down to the tens of thousands from the hundreds of thousands per year under the previous Labour Government’s open doors policy.
You can read my contribution to the debate by clicking here.