GB News host Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner have delivered their verdict on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's latest migration crackdown - claiming the move was influenced by Reform UK.Announcing a new immigration white paper to the nation, the Labour leader claimed the "open border experiment is over", vowing to bring migration numbers down "significantly".FULL STORY HERE.
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00He spoke at 8.30 this morning, the Prime Minister Mark, and we've been sort of mulling over the detail of what he was saying this morning.
00:08There isn't a huge amount of detail. There's very little that you can hold him to reckoning on further down the line.
00:15But it was the kind of speech that I thought, if Nigel Farage used some of those words, there would be national outcry.
00:23An island of strangers.
00:24Well, that was a key one, wasn't it? We're in danger of becoming an island of strangers.
00:29He spent the whole speech really talking up the contribution that migrants have made to the country,
00:36while at the same time telling us that in recent years, the balance has changed with many migrants not contributing as they should to the economy
00:46and actually driving down wages, which, of course, is a driver behind the government's ambition to try to get net migration down.
00:55But key to this is, it seems, trying to encourage British employers to recruit from the pool here in the UK
01:07and not to just constantly go for cheap labour overseas.
01:11But that's easier said than done.
01:13You've got to then get British workers to want to take these jobs.
01:18You've got to get British employers to invest more in training and apprenticeships for many people here in this country as well,
01:26which increasingly we have seen a sort of move away from as they go for sort of more skilled labour from overseas to come over and do the job on a cheaper basis.
01:37Was it a misstep or an oversight that he didn't mention the small boats at all in the speech?
01:43He was going to be telling, particularly as you're breaking news today, 12,000 people have arrived illegally this year at the record.
01:50Well, listen, his speech, he wanted really to focus on the issues around legal migration, but they're all intertwined.
01:58Yeah.
01:58The small boats crisis is the most visible manifestation of the immigration crisis as a whole.
02:05It's what people see as individuals breaking into our country, circumventing our borders to then, in many cases, perhaps abuse the asylum system with a view to getting to stay in the UK.
02:21It's a highly contentious issue.
02:23And yes, you're right.
02:24On that very day that he brings forth these new plans, we can confirm that 12,000 small boat migrants have now crossed since the beginning of the year.
02:34That's well over 35% up on where we were this time last year.
02:39In fact, this time last year, it was June before we hit 10,000 migrants who'd crossed the English Channel.
02:45We know this is all because of reform, because I was just checking.
02:48He had something called, in his manifesto, he had a mission statement, first steps, milestones.
02:53That was the last one, the milestones, were in December, eight milestones.
02:57Didn't mention cutting elite migration.
03:00No mention of it, Mark.
03:02He's only doing this, this North London Liberal lawyer, because of the reform surge in the polls.
03:06Well, we can see that the white paper has been months in gestation.
03:13It might be argued, and you may well have a strong point here, that it's assumed a new priority.
03:20And perhaps some of the measures in the white paper have been sort of stepped up in the light of the successes that reform has been having.
03:32There's no doubt, just listening to the language there, you know, it was a tougher language in terms of what he wants to do in reducing the number of migrants who are coming across here who are not skilled and who are, as the Prime Minister believes, pulling the wages down.
03:52And the wage is down because they're coming in and doing the jobs cheaper.
03:56I mean, it was, what's interesting, I think, and I've had a copy of the white paper through, so I'm just going to start pouring through that now, see the detail.
04:06I've got a briefing a little later as well.
04:08There wasn't much detail in what the Prime Minister said.
04:11Some of it has been briefed out, obviously, over the weekend.
04:14But we know already that we are on a downward trajectory, whatever this government might say, because of policies that the previous government introduced around stopping students from bringing their dependents over and stopping many other employed sectors from bringing dependents over, from raising the threshold for salaries for certain skilled jobs.
04:38So it's going down, and it's estimated, I think, that these changes might bring it down on our 50, 60, 70,000.
04:46But we're still talking, you know, several hundreds of thousands, maybe half a million net migration this year when the figures come out a week on Thursday.
04:55That's nowhere near enough as far as most people in the country are concerned.
04:58Well, it was interesting, was it?
04:59Because he gave this very anti-migration speech based on this white paper, and it was the final question from one of the reporters who said to him,
05:06would he disapply the ECHR to appeals to remain in this country?
05:11And he said, no.
05:13And he stepped right back into his human rights lawyer's shoes, didn't he?
05:16He stepped right back into his legal shoes.
05:18And he said, no, because we have to fulfil our obligations on the global legal stage.
05:23And we're like, well, that, my friend, is who you are.
05:26Why are you still pretending that you're not?
05:28North London liberal lawyer.
05:30But this is what you're up against.
05:33And it was the same with the previous government.
05:35They wouldn't step away.
05:36They wouldn't step away from that either, because they're all being instructed by lawyers within the governmental departments who are telling them that you can't do that.
05:43Oh, don't do this, Minister.
05:43Can't do that, Minister.
05:44Yeah, so they don't.
05:45And then you have a system whereby those who are advocating on behalf of migrants, illegal migrants and asylum seekers,
05:54have really got their act together over the last decade and are now very well versed in being able to apply the most obscure legislation to their appeals with a way to ensuring that their clients get leave to remain in this country.
06:13So we've seen ridiculous examples about that with chicken nuggets being cited as a reason to stay and alike.
06:20But the fact is, generally speaking, these lawyers now, migration lawyers, human rights advocates working on behalf of these migrants are able to ensure that these people are allowed to stay because of the fact that in many cases they can't go back to their home country because it just wouldn't be safe.
06:38Thank you, Mark.