Home secretary Suella Braverman was today set to launch a new crackdown on asylum laws which she believes encourage people to come illegally to the UK.
In her speech to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Braverman was expected to make a fresh pledge to ‘end abuse of the rules’ and change laws around making asylum claims.
She is likely to vow to ensure that the UK’s policy on illegal immigration can withstand challenges based on modern slavery laws, the Human Rights Act or the European Court of Human Rights.
In excerpts released ahead of the speech, Braverman says it is right that Britain extends the ‘hand of friendship’ to those in need, but that there must be limits.
She will say: ‘This country has always [welcomed those in need]. It did so for my father in the 1960s as a young man from Kenya. We have now welcomed hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Syria, Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
‘At the same time we should use our newfound control to deliver the kind of immigration that grows our economy, for example that helps projects that have stalled or builds relationships with our friends and allies. Parts of the system aren’t delivering. We need to end abuse of the rules and cut down on those numbers that aren’t meeting the needs of our economy.’
In June Braverman’s predecessor Priti Patel was held back in her attempts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda by a ruling at the ECtHR.
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