Sunak fends off Starmer’s attacks on illegal migration

Keir Starmer decided that attack was the best form of defence at Prime Minister’s Questions. He tackled Rishi Sunak’s flagship ‘stop the boats’ policy on the basis that it simply won’t work. The Labour leader started his attack by linking International Women’s Day with what he claimed was the government driving a ‘coach and horses’ through its own anti-slavery legislation, which in particular protects women. He said the government had introduced five immigration reforms, all of which had failed, adding: ‘The Home Secretary says the public are sick of tough talk and inadequate action. Does he agree with her assessment of this government’s record?’

Sunak detailed the illegal migration legislation unveiled yesterday, before saying: ‘What we haven’t heard is the honourable gentleman’s plan. We know what it is. It’s open door immigration and unlimited asylum. Whilst he may be on the side of the people smugglers, we’re on the side of the British people.’ Starmer retorted that if Sunak was really serious about stopping the boats, ‘he’d actually steal our plan on stopping the boats’. It was clear the two men were fighting on the same turf: whether either had a plan to cut illegal migration that worked, rather than the morality of the policies. 

Starmer moved onto details that he hoped showed the government’s policies wouldn’t work, such as how many people deemed ineligible for asylum under the Nationality and Borders Act had actually been returned. Sunak didn’t answer the question. This allowed Starmer to tell the chamber it was just 21, while the rest of the people were languishing in hotels and unable to move on or return. 

Sunak listed the ways in which Starmer showed he wasn’t really serious about actually tackling illegal migration, including opposing the Rwanda plan and arguing against deportation flights. The Prime Minister had a louder flank of cheering MPs behind him – Labour’s position on immigration has always been a tense one (remember the infamous and now collectible ‘Controls On Immigration’ mug in the 2015 election campaign). So if PMQs is merely a rallying point for the troops, Sunak won. But this is very much round one of hundreds in the run-up to an election that the Conservatives want to be dominated by immigration and Labour wants to be about an ineffectual Tory party that has squandered its time in government.