Gedling MP Tom Randall has backed the Home Secretary’s new plan for immigration in the UK.
Mr Randall, who is Conservative MP for Gedling, has voiced his support of Priti Patel’s planned changes to the UK’s approach to asylum.
The new approach, which represents the biggest overhaul of the immigration system in decades, will aim to deter illegal entry and break the business model of people smugglers.
For the first time, how people enter the UK will directly impact the status of their asylum claim and right to stay.
Those who prevail with claims having entered illegally will receive a new temporary protection status rather than an automatic right to settle and will be regularly reassessed for removal from the UK
Speaking on the new plan, Mr Randall said: “I strongly back the Home Secretary’s overhaul of the UK’s asylum system because I know how frustrated my Gedling constituents are about small boats coming to the UK.
“The new plan for Immigration will ensure that these perilous and illegal journeys to the UK via safe countries in which people should and could have claimed asylum are no longer worth the risk, whilst ensuring the world’s most vulnerable can still seek refuge.”
The plan has three main objectives, those being to increase the fairness and efficacy of the system, to deter illegal entry into the UK and to remove more easily from the UK those who have no right to be here.
The Home Secretary, when discussing the implementation of her new plan, said: “Under our new plan for immigration, if people arrive illegally, they will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive legally, and it will be harder for them to stay.
“If, like over 60 per cent of illegal arrivals, they have travelled through a safe country like France to get here, they will not have immediate entry into the asylum system – which is what happens today.
“And we will stop the most unscrupulous abusing the system by posing as children, by introducing tougher, more accurate age assessments.
“Profiteering from illegal migration to Britain will no longer be worth the risk, with new maximum life sentences for people smugglers.
“I make no apology for these actions being firm, but as they will also save lives and target people smugglers, they are also undeniably fair.”
Last year, 8,500 people arrived into the UK by crossing the Channel in a small boat – with the majority claiming asylum.
