Tories warn PM of 'heavy price' unless Channel boats plan toughened

Rishi Sunak gathers Cabinet after Tories put him on notice he will ‘pay a heavy price’ at the next election unless Channel migrants Bill is toughened up – but delay threatened revolt

Rishi Sunak gathered his Cabinet today after Tories put him on notice that he will ‘pay a heavy price’ at the next election unless the Channel migrants Bill is toughened up.

The PM and his top team are meeting in No10 after ministers won some breathing space by promising to consider proposals for tightening the controversial legislation.

However, Mr Sunak is still facing a pincer between backbenchers who want to bolster the rules and block European judges from meddling – and those who are demanding more safe routes and exemptions for children.    

The government proposals would effectively ban Channel arrivals from claiming asylum in the UK. The Illegal Migration Bill is due back in the House later today, but the reckoning with MPs is now likely to come in May at the report and third reading stages.   

Tory former minister Sir John Hayes – a close ally of Home Secretary Suella Braverman – warned during the latest Commons debate last night that Conservatives will not be given a ‘third chance’ to address the issue.

ory former minister Sir John Hayes warned during the latest Commons debate last night that Conservatives will not be given a ‘third chance’ to address the Channel boats issue

Home Secretary Suella Braverman was among the ministers gathering for Cabinet today 

A file picture of a migrant boat being helped to safety in the Channel  

Pointing to the Nationality and Borders Act, which passed last year, Sir John said the public was told that legislation would ‘do the job’ but he conceded it ‘couldn’t achieve what we wanted’.

He warned his party would pay a ‘heavy price’ if the latest Bill fails to deliver on Mr Sunak’s vow to ‘stop the boats’.

He said: ‘If (the Bill) fails, and the Government is found wanting, those on this side of the House will pay a heavy price. So, the minister needs to know that we’ve been down this road before with the (Nationality and Borders Bill).

‘Of course, we were told that the borders bill would do the job. And I don’t think ministers were deceiving us. They genuinely believed that would be the case and yet … we found that we couldn’t achieve what we wanted with the borders bill.

‘We will not be given a third chance. This is our second chance to deal once and for all with the matter of the boats arriving in Dover, the – and I do use the word, tide, wave, I think Home Secretary described it as a swarm – of people coming here who know they’re arriving illegally.

‘It isn’t too much to expect that a government maintains lawful control of our borders … it is modest, it is moderate, it is just, it is virtuous to have a system which means that people who come here come here lawfully.’

He also told MPs: ‘I hope when (Home Office minister Robert Jenrick) sums up this debate, he will agree to enter into a dialogue with those of us who are speaking for the people, and we claim no more than that, that we are the spokesmen of the hard-working, patriotic, lawful majority … with the aim of improving the Bill.’

He voiced support for amendments from backbench Tories, saying: ‘These amendments are designed to do two things.

‘The first to give more power to Government to achieve its objective.

‘The second is to limit those opportunities which exist – and we know they will be taken – to frustrate the Government’s will, and by the Government’s will I emphasise Parliament’s will, to do more to deal with this matter.’

Fellow Conservative Miriam Cates complained that many of those who ‘argue against strong borders and strong action against illegal immigration are not themselves personally affected by illegal immigration’.

‘Their wages are not threatened by the black market economy, they don’t rely on essential local resources that are taken up with housing migrants, their children are not sent to school with young men who are clearly not children, and their sense of agency and national identity does not rest on the integrity of our borders or the sovereignty of our Parliament,’ she said.

‘For those whose lives and culture are not negatively impacted by thousands of people arriving here on small boats it makes sense to argue for open borders in the name of compassion.

Mr Sunak is still facing a pincer between backbenchers who want to bolster the rules and block European judges from meddling – and those who are demanding more safe routes and exemptions for children

‘For many of my constituents, these are luxury beliefs and the reality is that high and clearly visible levels of illegal immigration are a threat to ordinary people’s safety, security, identity and sense of fair play.

‘Believing in and upholding strong borders and firm boundaries is not uncompassionate or bigoted. It is a prerequisite for a fair, safe and cohesive nation.’

Asylum-seekers have been crossing the Channel in small boats for a number of years despite efforts made to prevent them.

In 2018, then home secretary Sajid Javid declared the situation a ‘major incident’. At the start of 2019, a joint UK-France plan aimed to reduce it to an ‘infrequent phenomenon’ by spring 2020.

In December 2021, the then home secretary Priti Patel told the Commons the Nationality and Borders Bill would provide ‘a new comprehensive, firm but fair, and long-term plan that seeks to address the challenge of illegal migration facilitated by serious organised criminals exploiting people and profiting from human misery’.

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