‘Labour will let us down on migration – no amount of spin will change that’ – John Redwood

The Labour government will let us down over migration. In Opposition, they talked tough and gained support by implying they would stop the boats and control the numbers if only they were in power.

Now in office, their solution to the backlog of applicants for asylum is to let them in with an amnesty or quick approval. Their answer to the small boats is more of the same, believing more money and more staff might achieve what the more money and more staff of the last government didn’t manage.

They are trying to hire a Border Security Commander. We already have a senior Border Force Commander, first hired when Mrs May set up a uniformed expanded Border Force to keep our borders secure.

The additional Commander will need to get on well with the existing Border Force Commander who will still be in charge of most of the staff and the fleet of border patrol vessels.

We are told the new Commander will also have counter-terrorist powers. Border Force already works with specialist police where terrorism is involved. They could be given the extra powers if that helps.

Most of the boat business organisers are not terrorists. They are people traffickers making money out of subverting our border controls, breaking transport safety laws and dodging taxes. Why can’t we get more of them under tax, travel and immigration law?

The small boat people are rushing in now there are calmer seas. Some tragically die as overloaded boats spring leaks or fail from mechanical trouble. The new Home Secretary shouts better enforcement as if the previous government hadn’t thought of that.

Meanwhile, of more relevance to our shortage of homes and GP appointments, and scarcity of water pipes, the government grants huge numbers of visas to economic migrants.

The outgoing government had just started to cut the flow by toughening the qualifications needed to gain access.

If the government wants to get home prices to more realistic levels and narrow the gap between demand and potential supply, it needs to cut the numbers of legal migrants further.

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The government seems to think setting up a new quango or nationalised company will solve problems. Much of it is just spending money on more overheads and new names and logos for things we have already. The Border Security Commander overlaps with the Border Force Commander.

The Wealth Fund will use the UK Infrastructure Bank to make investments. Great British Energy will invest in companies and projects much as the British Business Bank does. The government is better at spin than reality.

Treasury orthodoxy says if we invite in lots of people, that will give us more growth. If we invite in plenty of low-paid people with many dependents, income or output per head falls. Public spending goes up a lot as low-paid and no-pay migrants get plenty of taxpayer support with subsidised social housing, free NHS and schools and top-up benefits.

The government needs to wake up to the need to cut legal migration urgently. As for the small boats, the UK is such a magnet with plenty of jobs and government financial support for illegals no amount of enforcement is going to stop all of them.