Is the Government about to sell us down the river on immigration? 

The ability for Britain to control its own borders was the issue that won the Brexit referendum for the Leave side in 2016. It convinced huge numbers of people to vote to quit the EU. Almost five years later, reducing immigration into the UK remains a key requirement of the Red Wall voters, who helped to secure the Conservative Party its 80-seat majority in the 2019 general election.

Yet despite the confident note on this topic struck by Home Secretary Priti Patel in the latest edition of the Sunday Telegraph, I see a problem with the credibility of her claims. Indeed, 2021 is not even a week old and already the first illegal immigrants have arrived at the Port of Dover.

I have no doubt that Patel understands the importance of border controls and the central role it played in delivering Brexit. She has also shown that she is unafraid to take on “do-gooder” celebrities and “lefty lawyers” who have protested at the deportation of foreign criminals. They include Naomi Campbell, the fashion model, and David Olusoga, one of the BBC’s favourite presenters. They were part of a group of public figures, including 60 MPs, who wrote an open letter in November calling for a deportation flight to Jamaica to be cancelled. Convinced of the evil intent of the government following the Windrush scandal, these celebrities and politicians managed to help prevent some of the deportations from going ahead.

That is why Michael White, a drug dealer who was sentenced in 2003 to a minimum of 18 years in jail for murder and attempted murder, remains in Britain. The same goes for Jermaine Stewart, a rapist who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2016.

Patel knows that the Tory-voting public is appalled by this, prompting her to make it clear that from now on she will defy activist lawyers by making deportation flights to Jamaica a “regular drumbeat”.

She faces similar depth of feeling over illegal immigrants crossing the Channel. In 2020, the official number of people coming to these shores via inflatable dinghies reached 8,500. (Remember, these are the people who are known to the authorities. It’s impossible to say how many more have arrived surreptitiously). Anybody who thought this flow would cease in winter is mistaken. Early on January 2, in freezing conditions, the French Navy escorted and handed over to UK Border Force a small vessel with eight illegal migrants on board. It was the first of the year and it most certainly won’t be the last.

Time and again, Patel has promised that she will end this trade. British taxpayers continue to hand tens of millions of pounds to the French government so that it can do its bit to help with that effort. Chris Philp, the Immigration Minister, has engaged in a seemingly endless series of meetings with his French counterparts. Yet nothing changes. There comes a point at which a government which continually breaks a big promise loses the trust of its supporters.   

Until the end of the Brexit transition period, asylum claims were dealt with under the Dublin regulations. This meant that while Britain’s authorities could return those who had already claimed asylum in another EU state, they could not return anyone who sought to pursue their asylum claim in the UK. The fact that more than 80 per cent of those who arrive here are not eligible for asylum just adds insult to injury.

The problem for Patel is that, Britain leaving the EU, the Dublin regulations have expired and have not been replaced with anything else. The French have successfully stalled us, so what will the British government do? It could simply return to France those who arrive in the UK illegally, but I see a legal problem here too. Britain has left the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, and that is a success for David Frost and his negotiating team. What has barely been discussed since Boris Johnson struck his Brexit deal, however, is that the UK has agreed to remain part of the European Human Rights regime. Moreover, Britain is committed in the treaty to “give effect to the rights and freedoms in the ECHR”.

The upshot of this is that if the UK is seen to have violated these terms, the whole of the trade agreement could be terminated by the EU. This is the mess in which Britain now finds itself. As things stand, the government will continue to face legal challenges if it tries to deport convicted criminals and the cross-Channel migrant route will be as busy as it was last year.

It is going to take extraordinary courage and political will to deal with these problems, about which so many voters and taxpayers care so passionately. I wonder if this government has the will necessary to tackle this situation head-on?