IN HIS strongest attack on illegal migration yet, Rishi Sunak has hit out at the “completely ridiculous” breach of Britain’s borders by small boats.
The Prime Minister said it is unfair that illegal migrants are jumping the queue and putting unsustainable pressure on overstretched public services.
But Mr Sunak vowed “I’m going to do everything I can” to get flights in the air to Rwanda to stop the channel crossings for good.
The PM invited our readers into No 10 so he could hear directly about the issues that matter most to them and was told illegal migration is a big concern.
Mr Sunak insisted his plan to cut numbers is working and crossings have already dropped by a third.
Rishi Sunak invites Daily Express readers to No 10 (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
The Prime Minister said: “That’s never happened before because all we’ve had with small boats is numbers have gone up and up and up.
“But I really have attacked this problem because I think the situation is completely ridiculous.
“It’s completely unfair that people are jumping the queue, breaking the system and putting unsustainable pressure on public services.
“I bet all of you in your local communities, I certainly do at home in North Yorkshire, have a hotel in our local town that’s been taken over because we need to house illegal migrants.
“That’s clearly not right and it costs a fortune, millions of pounds a day.
“So for all these reasons we have got to grip it.”
Mr Sunak told our panel that the deal to return Albanians to their home country, increased cooperation with the French and work to break the crime gangs all mean “we are making progress”.
“But in order to fully solve this problem, what we need is a deterrent,” he added. “We really need to be able to say to anybody ‘if you come here illegally you just can’t stay’.
“We will be able to return you to your home country if it’s safe, like Albania, that’s what we have done.
“Or, if not, to Rwanda and that’s why Rwanda is so important. And I’m going to do everything I can to get that through parliament up and running and get the flights off because when that is working, just as we saw with Albania, when you can send people back, what do you know, they stop coming in the first place.
“That’s why that deterrent is the right way to solve this in the first place.”
Mr Sunak was asked why the UK cannot turn boats around in the way Australia has done sporadically since 2001.
The PM said he had “looked at this a lot” but the difference in Australia is migrants arrive in bigger boats that are more robust.
“You can’t turn around a little rubber dingy without it essentially capsizing,” he added.
“So those are the practical challenges with it.”
Mr Sunak said the UK did not have the “best of relations with the French” when he entered No 10 but “whether you like it or don’t like it” stopping small boats means “we need to cooperate with them”.
“So, because I have repaired our relations, we have now got British officers embedded in the French operations,” he added.
“They are using drone technology to survey the beaches, we are sharing intelligence and pointing their people in the right place and they are building more detention facilities.”
Rishi Sunak says the small boats crisis is completely ridiculous (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Mr Sunak said French authorities are using floating walls of buoys in key rivers being used to access the beach as well as in the channel.
“They have done that as part of the new relationship I have struck with them.
“And all of these are reasons why the numbers are down. The numbers had quadrupled in the years before I became prime minister, for the first time ever they are down, that’s because of things like this.
“Which hopefully gives you the confidence that I care about this, because I think the situation is completely wrong and unsustainable, but also that I am doing something about it and those plans are starting to work.
“So, if we stick with it, we can get this done.”
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In a wide-ranging discussion around the table in the study used by Margaret Thatcher as her office, our readers also pressed the PM on everything from waiting lists in the NHS to support for small businesses.
Italian restaurateur Alan Calzari also jokingly quizzed Mr Sunak on whether pineapple should be allowed on a pizza, something considered a culinary outrage in his home country.
“No, Hawaiian is not my thing,” the PM insisted.
Mr Sunak refused to be drawn on whether another VAT cut could be introduced to help struggling hospitality firms following the rate temporarily being reduced to 5% during the pandemic.
But he indicated businesses will not see any more high rises in the national living wage after a series of significant increases, including a 10% hike this year.
In April, the level will have hit the government target of two thirds of median earnings.
“In theory – we haven’t said what future policy is – you shouldn’t see those rises again because we have got to where we need to get to now,” Mr Sunak said.
The PM admitted he has not been able to reduce NHS waiting lists “as much as I would have liked” and said that has been “in large part” down to the strikes.
“We got a glimpse of what’s possible in October and November last year when there were virtually no strikes over those months and the waiting lists over those two months dropped by over 150,000,” he added.
“So it just shows that when there aren’t any strikes, we are making big progress in bringing down the waiting lists.”
