GovWire

WATCH: Rishi Sunak update on illegal migration - YouTube

Today the government has introduced the toughest anti-illegal immigration law ever.

I know it will upset some people and you will hear a lot of criticism about it.

Its right to explain why I have decided to do this.

Im the child of immigrants

I understand why some people take the risk of getting into unsafe dinghies to cross open waters

its because the United Kingdom is an incredible country it offers opportunity, hope and safety.

But the difference is my family came here legally.

Like most immigrants, they integrated into local communities

worked hard to provide for their family

built lives and businesses, found friends and neighbours

and most of all they were really proud to become British.

That feeling of pride it cascades down the generations and grows and thats why you see so many children of immigrants sitting around the Cabinet table.

But its not a given illegal immigration undermines not just our border controls it undermines the very fairness that is so central to our national character.

We play by the rules. We put in our fair share. We wait our turn.

Now if some people can just cut all that out youve not just lost control of your borders youve fatally undermined the very fairness upon which trust in our system is based.

Thats why this legislation is necessary.

To deliver an effective deterrent to those who wish to come here illegally

to restore peoples trust that the system is fair

and ultimately: to stop the boats.

And so, our Bill today fundamentally addresses the Supreme Courts concerns over the safety of Rwanda.

I did not agree with their judgement, but I respect it.

That is why I have spent the last three weeks working tirelessly to respond to their concerns

and to guarantee Rwandas safety in a new legally binding international treaty.

The Supreme Court were clear that they were making a judgement about Rwanda at a specific moment 18 months agoand that the problems could be remedied.

Today we are confirming that they have been

and that unequivocally, Rwanda is a safe country.

And todays Bill also ends the merry-go-round of legal challenges that have blocked our policy for too long.

We simply cannot have a situation where our ability to control our borders

and stop people taking perilous journeys across the channel

is held up in endless litigation in our courts.

So this Bill gives Parliament the chance to put Rwandas safety beyond question in the eyes of this countrys law.

Parliament is sovereign. It should be able to make decisions that cannot be undone in the courts.

And it was never the intention of international human rights laws

to stop a sovereign Parliament removing illegal migrants to a country that is considered safe in both parliamentary statute and international law.

So the Bill does include what are known as notwithstanding clauses.

These mean that our domestic courts will no longer be able to use any domestic or international law

including the Human Rights Act

to stop us removing illegal migrants.

Let me just go through the ways individual illegal migrants try and stay.

Claiming asylum thats now blocked.

Abuse of our Modern Slavery rules blocked.

The idea that Rwanda isnt safe blocked.

The risk of being sent on to some other country - blocked.

And spurious Human Rights claims youd better believe weve blocked those too

because were completely disapplying all the relevant sections of the Human Rights Act.

And not only have we blocked all these ways illegal migrants will try and stay

weve also blocked their ability to try and stay by bringing a Judicial Review on any of those grounds.

That means that this Bill blocks every single reason that has ever been used to prevent flights to Rwanda from taking off.

The only, extremely narrow exception will be if you can prove with credible and compelling evidence

.that you specifically have a real and imminent risk of serious and irreversible harm.

We have to recognise that as a matter of law - and if we didnt, wed undermine the treaty weve just signed with Rwanda.

As the Rwandans themselves have made clear

if we go any further the entire scheme will collapse.

And theres no point having a Bill with nowhere to send people to.

But I am telling you now, we have set the bar so high

that it will be vanishingly rare for anyone to meet it.

And once you have been removed, youll be banned for life from travelling to the UK, settling here, or becoming a citizen.

But, of course, even with this new law here at home

we could still face challenges from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

So let me repeat what I said two weeks ago

I will not allow a foreign court to block these flights.

If the Strasbourg Court chooses to intervene against the express wishes of our sovereign Parliament

I will do what is necessary to get flights off.

And todays new law already makes clear that the decision on whether to comply with interim measures issued by the European Court

is a decision for British government Ministers and British government Ministers alone.

Because it is your government not criminal gangs, or indeed foreign courts who decides who comes here and who stays in our country.

Now of course, our Rwanda policy is just one part of our wider strategy to stop the boats.

And that strategy is working.

Ive been Prime Minister for just over a year now and for the first time, small boat arrivals here are down by a third.

even as illegal crossings of the Mediterranean have soared by 80 per cent.

Let me just repeat that: small boat arrivals here are down by a third.

To help achieve that, weve signed returns and co-operation agreements with France, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, and Georgia.

Illegal working raids are up by nearly 70 per cent.

50 hotels are being returned to their local communities and we are housing people in a new barge and in former military sites.

The initial asylum backlog is down from 92,000 to less than 20,000.

Weve returned over 22,000 illegal migrants.

And as our deal with Albania shows deterrence works.

Last year, a third of all those arriving in small boats were Albanian.

This year we have returned 5,000 people and cut those arrivals by 90 per cent.

And Albanian arrivals have far more recourse to the courts than anyone under this new legislation.

Thats why Im so confident that this Bill will work.

Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court Judge, believes this Bill will work.

We will get flights off the ground.

We will deter illegal migrants from coming here.

And we will, finally, stop the boats.