Yahoo News Conservative conference: Priti Patel takes aim at migration ‘do-gooders’ as she launches asylum reform plan
Priti Patel has launched an attack on human rights “do-gooders” and “lefty lawyers” who she claimed were united with people-traffickers in wanting to prevent reform of the UK’s “broken” asylum system.
In a speech to the Conservative Party’s virtual conference, Ms Patel unveiled plans for the biggest overhaul in a generation of the asylum system, to prevent illegal migrants from making “endless” appeals against removal and allow immediate expulsion of those with no claim to refugee status.
But her broadside at those defending migrants was branded “absurd” by one immigration barrister, who said lawyers had been calling for reform of the system for decades.
Ms Patel said that the UK’s current asylum system was “enabling international criminal trade” by encouraging migrants to put themselves in the hands of gangs for perilous journeys across the English Channel in small boats.
Once in the UK, vulnerable migrants were stuck in a backlog of more than 40,000 people waiting for decisions on asylum claims which can take more than a year at an annual cost to UK taxpayers of more than £1bn, she said.
She promised legislation next year to deliver a “firm and fair” system addressing moral, legal and practical problems with the system which she said had been neglected through “decades of inaction” by successive governments.
And she vowed to unleash the “full force” of crime and intelligence agencies against people-smuggling gangs.
In a pre-emptive assault on expected criticism of her hardline approach, Ms Patel said: “No doubt those who are well-rehearsed in how to play and profit from the broken system will lecture us on their grand theories about human rights.
“And yet they seem to care little about the rights of the most vulnerable who are fleeing persecution, oppression and tyranny.
“What about their right to live their lives securely and free from fear? That is the most fundamental right.”She said: “Under Conservative leadership, the United Kingdom has and always will provide sanctuary when the lights are being switched off on people’s liberties.
“As for those defending the broken system – the traffickers, the do-gooders, the lefty lawyers, the Labour Party – they are defending the indefensible."
Barrister Alasdair Mackenzie of Doughty Street Chambers said it was “absurd” to suggest that immigration lawyers could be grouped with people-traffickers as defenders of the existing system.
He told The Independent: “Lawyers have been calling for reform for decades.
“If she is genuinely serious about wanting reform, I and others would be very interested in sitting down with her to discuss it.
“The system definitely needs reform, it just doesn’t need reform in the way she is suggesting.”
Ms Patel said Labour had warned that lives would be lost as a result of the changes she is pursuing.
But she said: “Lives are already being lost.
“So do not let them peddle a false narrative that Conservatives do not have a proud history of providing a safe haven to those most in need.”
Declaring herself ready to bear abuse on social media and mockery of her accent by Tony Blair’s former director of communications Alastair Campbell, she said: “As Conservatives, we do not measure the depth of our compassion in 280 characters on Twitter, but in the actions we take and the choices we make.”
“I will not be complicit in an international criminal trade in asylum seekers, elbowing the most vulnerable to the side,” she said.
“Reform the system, prosecute the criminals, protect the vulnerable.
“That is what a firm, but fair asylum system should look like, and that is what I intend to deliver.”
Ms Patel also fired another shot in the Conservative culture war campaign, denouncing the “mob” which tore down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol and accusing some participants in the summer’s wave of anti-racism protests of “hooliganism and thuggery”.
“There is no excuse for pelting flares at brave police officers,” she said.
“There is no excuse for throwing bikes at police horses.
“There is no excuse for disrespecting the Cenotaph or vandalising the statue of Sir Winston Churchill, one of the greatest protectors of our freedoms who has ever lived.
“It is not acceptable for mobs to tear down statues and cause criminal damage across our streets.
“And it is not acceptable for thugs to assault our police officers, just for doing their job.
“As our police walk the line of duty, I want every one of them to know, I have their back.”
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