From 1h agoKey events4m agoJenrick tells MPs government on track to clear legacy backlog of asylum claims by end of year1h agoKeegan says her dig at people doing nothing about Raac was not aimed at Sunak2h agoMid Bedfordshire byelection to take place on 19 October2h agoHunt says autumn statement to take place on Wednesday 22 November2h agoLabour’s Wes Streeting suggests more flexible working in NHS might allow hospitals to improve weekend cover3h agoRutherglen and Hamilton West byelection to take place on 5 October, just before Labour conference4h agoUK government has been ‘world leading’ in identifying schools with Raac problems, says minister4h agoStarmer says it is ‘unforgivable’ children not in school because of Raac school building crisis4h agoCost of fixing UK school concrete crisis still not known, minister says5h agoKeir Starmer tells his new shadow cabinet they need to provide answer to question: ‘Why Labour?’5h agoGovernment has adopted ‘sticking-plaster approach’ to school building safety, says Gareth DaviesFilters BETAKey events (11)Gillian Keegan (11)Jeremy Vine (6)Rishi Sunak (6)Keir Starmer (4)Robert Jenrick (4)2m ago09.22 EDT
Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, was responding to Jenrick. He dismissed the claim that the government was succeeding in reducing small boat crossings. He said they reached a record high at the weekend, and he said poor weather explained why numbers were down in July and August. “A strategy that depends on the wather is probably not a very sustainable strategy at all,” he said.
4m ago09.19 EDTJenrick tells MPs government on track to clear legacy backlog of asylum claims by end of year
Jenrick says the government has achieved its aim of hiring more decision makers to process asylum claims. He says there were 2,500 in place by 1 September, an increase of 174% on the same point last year.
That means the government is on track to clear the legacy backlog of applications by the end of the year, he says.
He says provisional figures for July showed the overall backlog down.
He says the number of people crossing the Channel on small boats is 20% below what it was at the same point last year.
And in August crossings were down by a third, he says.
He says the government should be judged against the worst case scenario for small boat arrivals in 2023, which was 85,000. That estimate was produced by the Home Office last year.
Interestingly, Jenrick says this was the scenario given to the government “when taking office last year”. In fact, the government has been in office, in one form or another, since 2010, but for obvious reasons Rishi Sunak is keen to argue the clock only started in 2022.
16m ago09.08 EDT
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, is making a statement to MPs about illegal migration.
He says the government is doing whatever it takes to stop the small boats.
To tackle the problem upstream, the government has agreed a partnership with Turkey. And he says he has visited Egypt, too.
In…
2023-09-05 08:19:58
Link from www.theguardian.com
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