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The Tories only realised the impact that leaving the EU would have on dealing with the small boats crisis “just before” Brexit, Boris Johnson’s former immigration minister has admitted.
In a leaked recording, shadow home secretary Chris Philp appeared to concede that the Tories were late to understand the extent to which people crossing the Channel could have been returned to EU countries they had previously claimed asylum in.
The admission, in a recording obtained by Sky News, reported to come from a meeting with Tory members last month, appears to stand in stark contrast to the Tories’ Brexit promises on “taking back control” of the UK’s immigration system.
In summer 2020, Mr Philp had warned that “constraints” in the EU’s Dublin regulations – rules that govern which countries in the bloc should process an asylum claim – made “returning people who should be returned a little bit harder than we would like”, while Mr Johnson’s spokesperson criticised them as “inflexible and rigid”.
But in the new recording, when reportedly asked by a Tory member why countries such as France continued to allow migrants to come to the UK, Mr Philp can be heard striking a somewhat different tone.
The Tory frontbencher appears to say: “Because we’re out of the European Union now, we are out of the Dublin 3 regulations, and so we can’t any longer rely on sending people back to the place where they first claimed asylum.
“When we did check it out, just before we exited the EU transitional arrangements on 31 December 2020, we did run some checks and found that about half the people crossing the channel had claimed asylum previously elsewhere in Europe – in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, somewhere like that, and therefore could have been returned.
“But now we’re out of Dublin, we can’t do that, and that’s why we need to have somewhere like Rwanda that we can send these people to as a deterrent.”
Labour claimed the leaked recording showed the Tories “didn’t have a plan” for asylum as it led the country out of the EU.
A spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch has previously admitted the Tories led us out of the EU without a plan for growth. Now her shadow home secretary has admitted they didn’t have a plan for asylum either.”
But the Conservatives insisted its previous administration “did have a plan” and that “no one, including Chris, has ever suggested otherwise”.
“The Conservative Party delivered on the democratic will of this country, and left the European Union,” a Tory spokesperson said.
“We created new deals with France to intercept migrants, signed returns agreements with many countries across Europe, including a landmark agreement with Albania that led to small boat crossings falling by a third in 2023, and developed the Rwanda deterrent – a deterrent that Labour scrapped, leading to 2025 so far being the worst year ever for illegal channel crossings.
“However, Kemi Badenoch and Chris Philp have been clear that the Conservatives must do a lot more to tackle illegal migration.
“It is why, under new leadership, we are developing g new policies that will put an end to this problem – including disapplying the Human Rights Act from immigration matters, establishing a removals deterrent and deporting all foreign criminals.”
Additional reporting by PA
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