UK set to face ‘unprecedented pressure’ from illegal immigration, Suella Braverman says, as she unveils small boats laws – live

Key events

Suella Braverman accused Yvette Cooper of just coming out with “hysteria, histronics and criticism” in her response.

She claimed that Labour’s call for safe and legal routes to be available for asylum seekers would in practice mean unlimited access for people.

And she claimed that Keir Starmer and Labour did not even want to stop small boat crossings, because they thought it was “bigoted” to think like that.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, says the government has promised to address this problem before. But it has failed, she says.

She says crossings are at a record level. Convictions of smugglers have halfed, and and backlog of asylum applications has grown. The system is in chaos, she says.

She says Labour has a serious plan to get the National Crime Agency to stop the people smugglers and to speed up the processing of asylum applications.

She says Priti Patel, when she was home secretary, also said she would stop people arriving in the UK illegally claiming asylum. Cooper asks what is different. She says the government does not have a returns policy. And the Rwanda policy is not working, she says.

She says, if the government was serious, it would negotiate a returns agremeent with countries like France.

The bill is not a solution, she says. It risks making the situation worse.

Braverman says under the bill people entering the UK illegally will be detained and swiftly removed, to their home country if it is safe, or a third country like Rwanda.

The bill will allow people to be detained, without bail or judicial review for the first 28 days.

Only under-18s, the ill, or people at risk of irreversible harm will be exempt from removal, she says.

She says the bill will stop migrants using modern slavery laws to prevent detention.

She says the approach is novel. That is why the bill includes a section 19 (1) (b) statement (see 10.33am).

She ends by saying people have had enough. The government is acting with determination, proportion and compassion, she says.

Braverman says up to 100 million people could qualify to come to UK if safe and legal routes were unlimited

Braverman says the asylum system has been overwhelmed by illegal arrivals.

They all travelled through safe countries, she says.

The vast majority were men under the age of 40. The need for reform is urgent, she says.

She says the government has already taken various steps to address this issue. But it has not been enough. Today’s laws are “not fit for purpose”, she says.

And she suggests that those proposing unlimited safe and legal routes just want open borders. She says by some counts there are 100 million people who would qualify for protection in the UK under British law.

Braverman says countries like UK will face 'unprecedented pressures' in future years from illegal immigration

Braverman says the small boats problem is part of a “global migration crisis”. She goes on:

In the coming years, developed countries will face unprecedented pressures from ever greater numbers of people leaving the developing world for places like the UK.

Unless we act today, the problem will be worse tomorrow. And the problem is already unsustainable.

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, says the PM promised the public two months ago that anyone entering the UK illegally would be detained and swiftly removed. The illegal migration bill will allow that to happen.

The UK must always support the world’s most vulnerable, she says.

Since 2015 nearly 500,000 people have been given sanctuary here, she says. She says that includes 160,000 Ukrainians and 25,000 Afghans.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, starts by urging MPs not to refer in detail to asylum cases currently before the courts.

From the BBC’s Simon Jones

From Labour’s Diane Abbott, a former shadow home secretary

Rishi Sunak has arrived in the Commons chamber for Suella Braverman’s statement, the Sun on Sunday’s Kate Ferguson reports.

Downing Street says the measures in the illegal migration bill are “novel”, but within international law. At the lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said:

This is a policy, these are a package of measures that are designed to work within international law.

We are confident they are robust but these are novel, these are new approaches that we are taking.

Suella Braverman to give statement to MPs about illegal migration bill

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is set to make her statement to MPs about the illegal migration bill at 12.30pm. She will then take questions from MPs, probably for an hour or more.

Sunder Katwala, who runs British Future, a thinktank focusing on migration and identity issue, has used Twitter to post some of the questions he thinks Braverman needs to answer.

He points out that, under the Nationality and Borders Act passed last year, people arriving in the UK illegally on small boats are already meant to be ineligible to claim asylum.