Yvette Cooper will face MPs today as the government desperately tries to keep a lid on fury about Channel boats and asylum hotels.
The Home Secretary is set to make a statement as the Commons returns from a torrid summer dominated by protests over immigration.
Cabinet member Bridget Phillipson sparked controversy yesterday by justifying the government’s use of lawyers to keep an asylum hotel in Epping operational, arguing that the rights of newcomers take precedence over those of local citizens.
Despite overseeing record numbers of crossings from France this year, Ms Cooper will claim this afternoon that Labour’s plans are already working.
She will pledged to press ahead with a shake-up of the asylum appeals process, which currently takes an average of a year.
A new panel will prioritise cases involving foreign criminals and migrants living in hotels, with the aim of halving times to less than 24 weeks.
She is also expected to make it harder for refuges to bring family members to this country unless they meet basic standards like speaking English.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to make a statement as the Commons returns from a torrid summer dominated by questions over immigration
A protesters outside an asylum hotel in Newcastle last month
Ms Cooper will argue the changes are designed to bring ‘greater fairness and balance’ to a system that is struggling to maintain public confidence.
She intends to criticize the previous Conservative administration for leaving the system in ‘chaos and disarray’ and will caution that the government faces ‘complex challenges (which) require sustainable and workable solutions, not fantasy promises which can’t be delivered.’
She plans to highlight the UK’s strong history of offering sanctuary to those escaping persecution, such as recently from Ukraine and Hong Kong, and suggests that more support should be extended to students from Gaza. She stresses the importance of a controlled and managed system so the rules are observed and governments, not criminal networks, determine who is allowed entry to the UK.
It is speculated that Ms. Cooper might also inform MPs about her review of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), with Reform advocating for the UK to withdraw from the treaty to allow for a stricter asylum system.
The Court of Appeal will hand down its full written judgment in the Bell Hotel case later today.
Last week, the Government and the hotel’s owner managed to overturn a temporary injunction that would have mandated the removal of asylum seekers from the location.
Epping Forest District Council, which applied for the injunction, is considering taking the case to the Supreme Court.
Protests continued in Epping last night, with police arresting three people.
Around 200 demonstrators gathered outside the council building on Sunday evening, where a woman climbed the steps and unfurled a Union flag.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp dismissed plans to tighten rules on those granted asylum bringing family members to the UK as a ‘tiny tweak’.
‘I’m afraid the truth is this is a tiny tweak that will make very little difference,’ shadow home secretary he told BBC Breakfast.
He said the Government was ‘in complete denial’ about the scale of the ‘borders crisis’.
Despite overseeing record numbers of crossings from France this year, Ms Cooper will claim this afternoon that Labour’s plans are already working
He said: ‘To be quite honest, people who cross the channel illegally shouldn’t be able to bring any family members over here at all.
‘If the Government were genuinely committed to resolving this issue, they would ensure that everyone arriving illegally is immediately deported.’
Asked why the Conservatives did not restrict people’s ability to bring family into the UK when in power, he pointed to the now-scrapped Rwanda plan, which he said would have seen ‘every single illegal immigrant crossing the Channel immediately removed to Rwanda’.
