Speeches by Eagle.

“I will take no lessons from the Conservative party, which spent £700 million to send four volunteers to Rwanda and left huge backlogs of more than 90,000 stopped asylum claims—people in hotels, unable to leave because the Conservatives were trying to get their fantasy Rwanda programme off the ground.”

“We engage regularly with the Fire Brigades Union and we take very seriously the health and safety of firefighters, who risk their lives for our communities every day. The Home Office is reviewing recent academic research to evaluate risks posed by contaminants and the effectiveness of decontamination procedures. We wil…”

“Because of the size of the backlog we inherited from the Conservative party and an asylum system in chaos, with tens of thousands of people in limbo and very little processing happening, the problem cannot be solved overnight. However, we are working very hard to close hotels. I just gave the hon. Gentleman the figures…”

“The fall of the Assad regime was a welcome development, given that he was a tyrant, but 5,500 Syrian asylum seekers are currently in our system, many of whom fled the Assad regime. Until Syria’s future becomes a little more settled, it is difficult to decide those claims, which is why both this country and most of Euro…”

“I agree that this is an important area and that much more work needs to be done to consider effective contaminants and risks from the dangers that firefighters put themselves in every day to protect life.”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue. What the National Audit Office found in its report was not only an appalling process of decision making by members of the previous Government, but a grotesque waste of £15 million of taxpayers’ money—just like the waste of £60 million at RAF Scampton. In contrast,…”

“We are trying to co-operate much more with local authorities so that we can deal with these issues, but ultimately the way to deal with them is to get the backlog down and get people out of high-price accommodation so that we can integrate them if they are granted asylum.”

“There will be a huge drop of immigration-related national statistics at the end of the week.”

“—and increasing returns.”

“There is a safeguarding and safety issue going in both directions. I see reports of asylum seeker service users being attacked and injured, as well as of attacks in the other direction in a small number of cases. We always liaise with the local police and local authorities. We take an intelligence-led approach to see w…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his observations. Clearly, we begin from the situation that we found when we came into office. In this case, the system was in chaos, with a Rwanda scheme that was an unworkable and massively expensive distraction, which meant that no processing of any of the asylum claims made from March 202…”

“I am happy to check out the report, and I will write to my hon. Friend.”

“I agree. Of course, the right hon. Member for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge (Sir Gavin Williamson) knows only too well that the same hotel was open from 21 November 2022 to 8 February 2024, and he did not complain about it in the House then.”

“No. The previous Government did not do that either, for safeguarding and public safety reasons, as the hon. Gentleman knows.”

“I welcome any progress, but I also recognise the seasonality of arrivals. Unlike the last Government, I am not here to tell the House that there are any quick or easy solutions to this difficult problem. We are getting the system up and running, we have created the border security command to start disrupting and degrad…”

“We certainly are having to get the system back up and running from a virtual standing start, as the hon. Gentleman rightly points out. That means that we have been able, as I said, to go up from processing only 1,000 asylum claims a month to nearly 10,000 a month. Those who have gone through the whole system and have r…”

“I certainly do agree.”

“Our manifesto commitment was not to close all asylum hotels within four months of being elected.”

“Yes, but it is tough and difficult, and to be successful, it requires international co-operation across borders operationally, politically and diplomatically, and we are doing that.”

“We are working on it, but, as the hon. Gentleman knows, we have inherited a huge mess with large backlogs that are not easy to clear.”