Writing for this week's Redditch Standard (April 19th), Rachel said:
“This week I voted once again voted for the Safety of Rwanda Bill - new laws which will pave the way for illegal migrants who have no right to be in the UK to be removed from our country.
The Government is making significant progress in stopping the arrival of small boats, with crossings down by 36% in 2023. Last year, the Government prevented 26,000 crossing attempts, saw the small boats deal with Albania lead to a 90% fall in crossings, and cleared the asylum legacy backlog. Being able to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda is an essential deterrent and part of our full toolbox to stop the boats.
The Bill makes it clear that, if you come here illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed to Rwanda or another safe country.
Once the new laws are fully operational, I want to see flights taking off to Rwanda as soon as possible, acting as the deterrent we need to stop anyone thinking of entering our country illegally.
Whilst I backed the Bill at every stage as it made its way through Parliament, what did the Labour Party do? They voted against our tougher measures over 100 times. It’s no surprise when Labour MPs, including Sir Keir Starmer, tried to halt the deportation of violent foreign criminals and would scrap our deterrent measures even when they’re up and running, taking us back to square one.
If Labour were serious about stopping the boats, they would have backed our Rwanda plan this week, especially when they don’t have a plan of their own. How they voted tells you all you need to know about how much they actually care about solving this issue.
I don’t understand why they’ve voted against it more than 100 times when it’s a fair policy which stops people who have entered our country illegally from skipping the queue and preventing us from helping those in genuine need.
We will remain a generous and compassionate country by continuing to welcome genuine refugees, just as we’ve seen in recent years by welcoming refugees from Ukraine, Afghanistan and Syria.
I said I would vote for tough measures to tackle illegal migration and to stop the boats and I’ve done just that.”
