James Cleverly has branded Labour’s immigration plans a ‘con job’ which will make the UK ‘the destination of choice for illegal migrants in Europe’.
The Home Secretary acknowledged some Tory supporters want to ‘tell us off’ about immigration, but warned people considering Reform risk getting the opposite of what they want.
Scrapping the Rwanda deportation scheme would worsen the crisis – and leave Sir Keir Starmer with ‘no option’ but to give an amnesty to tens of thousands crossing the Channel illegally, he claimed.
And he suggested the former human rights lawyer did not have the country’s best interests at heart.
Mr Cleverly urged voters flirting with Reform to consider Sir Keir’s past before casting their vote in a way that could hand Labour a supermajority.
He said. ‘When coppers were getting beaten up by Black Lives Matter protesters, the leader of the Labour Party took the knee to try to get clicks and likes on social media rather than backing them.
‘When I’m trying to get foreign national offenders kicked out of the country… he was fighting tooth and nail to prevent them getting deported. His party has voted against immigration controls 130 times.’
Mr Cleverly said the Rwanda scheme was ‘already working’ to deter some migrants, even though no flights have taken off. The Labour leader and Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper say they will focus on ‘smashing the gangs’ of people smugglers instead with a ‘new’ border command.
But Mr Cleverly said a near-identical unit already exists.