Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gives an update on the plan to "stop the boats" and illegal migration during a press conference in the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, Thursday Dec. 7, 2023. Photo / James Manning via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gives an update on the plan to "stop the boats" and illegal migration during a press conference in the Downing Street Briefing Room in London, Thursday Dec. 7, 2023. Photo / James Manning via AP)
Hostile states will increasingly “drive people to our shores” to destabilise Western nations unless leaders crack down on illegal migration and revamp asylum conventions, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has said.
In a speech in Italy, Sunak said that insufficient action would lead to growing numbers that will “overwhelm our countries and our capacity to help those who need our help most”.
Amid sustained pressure from his own MPs to stop the flow of boats across the English Channel, Sunak warned that failing to tackle illegal migration would “destroy the public’s faith” in politicians and governments.
In the event of a failure to act, he added, “our enemies will see how unable we are to deal with this and so they will increasingly use migration as a weapon: deliberately driving people to our shores to try to destabilise our societies.”
Sunak was speaking at a festival hosted by Giorgia Meloni’s populist Brothers of Italy party in Rome, as he attempts to persuade the Conservative Right and Tory voters that his Rwanda legislation will be sufficient to ensure deportation flights can begin and deter future illegal Channel crossings. The controversial Bill is due to return to the Commons in January, when the Prime Minister faces the potential of a major rebellion.
It emerged that 292 migrants crossed the Channel in seven boats on Friday. One person died after a vessel sank during the journey to the UK.
Sunak’s legislation disapplies parts of the Human Rights Act to help prevent further legal challenges that might block flights to Rwanda. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, has separately warned that the courts have lowered the threshold for asylum claims under the United Nations Refugee Convention.
Sunak’s intervention suggests that he is now prepared to push for a revamp of such conventions as part of his efforts to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in order to claim asylum.
His warning about hostile states “driving people to our shores” came after Finland, which shares a 1300km border with Russia, accused Moscow of deliberately sending Middle Eastern migrants into the European Union to destabilise the bloc.
In the past, Poland has accused Belarus of encouraging migrants from the Middle East and Africa to cross into Europe in revenge for Western sanctions on Alexander Lukashenko’s government.
In further signs of the pressure on the Prime Minister, The Telegraph can reveal that more than 40 MPs, including Liz Truss, Suella Braverman, Sir John Hayes and Jonathan Gullis, have written to Sunak urging him to stop an attempt to impose a “shortened” selection process for prospective MPs, which it is feared could shut out potential candidates on the Right of the party.
Separately, in a private paper seen by this newspaper, Steve Baker, the Northern Ireland minister, warned that Downing Street must “wake up” to the fact that the Conservatives are being “outflanked” on the Right by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Sunak’s warning about the potential for migrants to “overwhelm” some European countries appeared reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s remark in 1978 that members of the public feared they might be “rather swamped by people of a different culture”.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, left, and Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cheer as they leave the annual political festival Atreju, organized by the Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy political party. Photo / AP
It echoes concerns being raised by some Conservative backbenchers, as well as sentiments being picked up by the party’s strategists in voter focus groups.
Sunak said: “If we do not tackle this problem, the numbers will only grow. It will overwhelm our countries, and our capacity to help those who actually need our help most. The costs of accommodating these people will anger our citizens, who won’t understand why their money should have to be spent on dealing with the consequences of this evil trade.
“It will destroy the public’s faith not just in us as politicians but in our very systems of government.”
In an interview with The Telegraph last week, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, criticised the Office for Budget Responsibility and Treasury, which see increased migration “as a good thing for the economy”, for failing to weigh up the “real pressure” the growing population puts on the NHS, schools and property market.
Braverman has been criticised for describing the flow of migrants across the Channel as “the invasion of our southern coast”. In October she warned of a “hurricane” of mass migration heading for the UK.
Sunak cited a need for world leaders to apply “Thatcher’s radicalism and drive” in tackling illegal migration. He said that both he and Meloni, who have been working together for months, were “determined to break the business model” of these criminal gangs involved in people trafficking.
He added: “If that requires us to update our laws and lead an international conversation to amend the post-war frameworks around asylum, we must do that.
“Because if we don’t fix this problem now, the boats will keep coming and more lives will be lost at sea.”
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, left, welcomes Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Photo / AP
Sunak and Meloni, who has defended Britain’s deal with Rwanda, have been working together to campaign for a crackdown on illegal migration.
The Prime Minister sees Rwanda-style deals to process asylum claims in third countries as key to reducing illegal arrivals, along with returns deals such as the one struck between the UK and Albania to speed up the deportation of illegal migrants.
Sunak said: “Our opponents just want to ignore this issue. They want to put their heads in the sand and hope it goes away.”
In September, Mrs Braverman used a speech in the US to warn that as many as 780 million people will be eligible to claim asylum without radical reform of global refugee rules.
No 10 said that after their talks on Saturday, Sunak and Meloni had agreed to co-fund a project that would see the two countries “promote and assist the voluntary return” of migrants currently stuck in Tunisia.
