Today (19th December 2022) the UK High Court has ruled the Rwanda Immigration and Economic Partnership agreement lawful, meaning that asylum seekers can lawfully have their asylum claims processed in Rwanda and ultimately in some cases may be settled there. It may still be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights.
I know people have very strong views on this issue and other issues to do with immigration and asylum. Some people have called the Rwanda plan deeply immoral. Other people support it and I support it at the moment. We remain a generous and welcoming country. We have taken a lot of refugees from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan.
I think we should have control over who we accept and when and how. Small boat crossings don't allow us to do that and make a huge amount of money for criminal gangs. I think making it clear that people will not always be allowed to stay here is vitally important otherwise people will keep using this route to arrive in the UK and more lives will be lost. There are quite literally millions of people that need help and would probably meet the criteria for asylum in the UK. We can't help all of them. We are also very generous in helping people with our international aid spending.
But I want to know what you as my constituents think. You might disagree! When it comes to non asylum migration I also know some people also miss freedom of movement with the EU a lot. I don't want it returned but you might! I also know businesses are struggling to fill jobs at the moment.
Please take a moment to complete my survey.