Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has launched a scathing attack on Labour's approach to migration, calling their decision to cancel the Rwanda scheme "a massive mistake".Speaking to GB News, Philp claimed 2025 has been "the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel".READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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00:00Good to see you, Mr. Philp. Can I start by asking you about Labour's plans to bring down
00:05legal migration? They're hoping to close this loophole about people who are here on graduate
00:11visas who then transfer over to health and social care visas in order to stay in this
00:17country. Is that something that you welcome? Yes, I do welcome attempts to get migration
00:25down. The figures have been far, far too high for a number of years. But of course, we
00:31Conservatives in government, towards the end of our time, announced some measures that have already
00:36got legal migration down a lot. For example, increasing all the salary thresholds and saying
00:42that students and people working in the social care sector cannot bring family members over
00:49with them. There was actually a further measure which we announced to raise the salary threshold
00:55to bring over a family member even further, up to £38,000. But Labour have suspended that move.
01:03That was actually due to come into force on the 1st of April, so about three or four weeks ago.
01:08But Labour have suspended it. I think Labour made a terrible mistake by doing that. I think if people
01:13are going to, if immigrants are going to bring family members over, that should only happen in
01:18limited circumstances where they can afford to look after those family members. And I think you do need
01:23to earn £38,000. To be certain that can happen. So Labour made a massive mistake by suspending that
01:30move. I think if they're serious about reducing immigration, they should adopt that Conservative
01:35measure. We've also tabled amendments to various bills in Parliament recently, for example, to have a
01:42binding annual vote in Parliament on what the immigration number should be. And that, in my view,
01:48should be a lot, lot lower than anything we've seen recently, and a lot, lot lower than recent
01:53forecasts. But Labour in Parliament voted against that Conservative proposal just a few weeks ago.
02:00So, I mean, I'm afraid so far, what we've heard from Labour, we may be hearing some rhetoric,
02:04but we have not seen action. They've failed to do those things I've just mentioned.
02:08Can we talk to you about illegal migration now? Because we are expecting to cross that threshold
02:14today. Those record numbers, 10,000 people crossing the Channel since January. And we know with warm
02:22weather, which we're expecting this week, I think it's about 27 degrees on Thursday, that we will
02:27inevitably see more small boat crossings. We were talking to Stephen Kinnock earlier on in the government
02:32morning round, and he blamed the dire inheritance that he was left by the Tories. What do you say to that?
02:37Well, that's obviously total nonsense. I mean, first of all, this year so far, 2025,
02:44has been the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel. Secondly,
02:50we know you need a deterrent. You need to deter people from crossing. We had a deterrent plan,
02:56the Rwanda scheme, which was due to start at the end of July, whereby everybody crossing the channel
03:02on a dinghy, illegal immigrants crossing the channel on a dinghy, would have been sent straight
03:07to Rwanda. And we know from when Australia did that about 10 years ago, that very, very quickly,
03:13within a matter of a few weeks or a couple of months, they just stopped crossing. Because if
03:18you're an illegal immigrant in France, why would you cross the English Channel on a dinghy if you're
03:22going to wind up in Rwanda? And it was Labour who cancelled that scheme before it even started.
03:30And because we now have no deterrent, that is why the numbers are worse than they ever were before.
03:34So if we get back into office, the first thing we'll do is establish a removals deterrent so that
03:40every illegal immigrant crossing the channel gets sent somewhere else very quickly, whether it's
03:45Rwanda or somewhere else, to deter them making those crossings. Now, Labour came in saying they
03:50were going to smash the gangs. Well, that claim lies in tatters. That's total nonsense. The gangs have
03:55not been smashed. And as I just said, 2025 so far, it has been the worst year in history for illegal
04:02immigrants crossing the channel. And that is Labour's fault because they cancelled Rwanda
04:06before it even started.
04:09It's going to be smashed in Ukraine. Zelensky or Putin, what's going on there? I mean, you saw the
04:14amazing conversation between Donald Trump and President Zelensky at the Vatican on Saturday.
04:23What did you make of what you saw? What way do you see now that President Trump seems to have
04:30turned a bit on President Putin? How do you see this going?
04:36Well, I mean, I was very pleased to see President Trump apparently changing his mind a little
04:41bit. Up until now, President Trump has been very, appears to have been quite friendly with
04:47Putin and taken a very sympathetic view to President Putin. I've always found that astonishing,
04:52to be honest, because very obviously, Putin is the aggressor. Russia invaded Ukraine. They're
04:58trying to destroy Ukraine, which is a sovereign democratic country. And I've never understood
05:03politicians who've been pro-Putin. I mean, Nigel Farage is pro-Putin. Farage has said that he
05:08admires Putin. And only last year, Nigel Farage was saying that the invasion was Ukraine's fault,
05:14which is a disgusting and, frankly, outrageous thing to say. But look, I'm pleased that, I mean,
05:19what's clearly happened is that over the last few weeks, Putin's behaviour has continued to be very,
05:24very bad, you know, bombing civilians in Ukraine with missiles. And Trump is obviously beginning
05:31to lose patience with Putin, which I think is a good thing. And I hope that Trump does give
05:37Zelensky and Ukraine more support and helps secure a peace, yes, but a peace that is just to Ukraine.
05:47And I think permanently giving up loads of territory and demilitarising Ukraine, which is what Putin
05:53wants, is completely unreasonable. And I hope that, in fact, it's immoral. And I hope that Trump,
05:59President Trump, changes his position a bit and does more to support Ukraine, because they deserve
06:04support. Home Secretary, we've got to leave it there. Thank you for your time.
06:08That conversation. Sorry? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I was saying thank you, Eamon.
06:14Okay. Thank you very much indeed, Chris. Thank you very much. We'll leave it there.
06:17Thank you. Thank you.