Writing in this week's Redditch Standard (November 24th), Rachel said:
“One of the issues I consistently receive the most emails about from constituents is immigration and the need for strong borders, especially so in the past week following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Government’s Rwanda policy.
It won’t surprise you to read that I side with my constituents who believe we have the right as a sovereign country to decide who can and who cannot enter our country.
Since I’ve been your MP, I’ve voted for stronger immigration controls and new laws that make clear that, if you come here illegally, you won’t get to stay in the UK.
Don’t get me wrong, legal migration can be a force for good. But there is a clear difference between legal migration which reflects the needs of our economy and illegal migration which puts unsustainable pressure on public services.
There is a balance to be struck, and right now more needs to be done to bring net migration down. Again, that’s exactly why I have voted for tough immigration controls, and I will continue to do so.
To do that, we must tackle illegal migration. And to just that we must get flights to Rwanda off the ground in the Spring. This will act as a deterrent to anyone thinking of entering the UK illegally by crossing the English Channel.
It is the morally right thing to do. We cannot allow the human traffickers to win by accepting thousands of pounds to bring migrants across the Channel from France. People are needlessly dying, and we can stop that.
We are a compassionate country, and we will continue to help genuine refuges, just as we have done by accepting refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine and Hong Kong.
But we can’t allow to happen is economic migrants and terrorists jumping the queue by entering the UK illegally, which then means we can’t help those in genuine need of refuge and asylum.
I am unapologetic about my stance on this issue because I strongly believe in the right of our sovereign UK Government to decide who can and who cannot enter our country."
