Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accuses Labour of rearranging the deckchairs by placing small boat migrants in ex-military barracks rather than hotels

Amid all the chaos of this Labour Government, the Home Office is desperately trying to claim that using former military barracks to house illegal immigrants is a win.

The reality is, the Government need to use these barracks because they aren’t removing small boat migrants, and more illegal immigrants keep coming.

Over 75,000 small boat immigrants have crossed the Channel since the election, and the Labour Government’s weak attempts to stop this happening have failed.

In fact, over 1,600 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel in the last week.

Labour is choosing to house illegal immigrants rather than deport them because the Government doesn't have the backbone to take the necessary action to stop illegal immigration.

Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Government say its deporting a record number of migrants, but let’s look at the facts.

Only 16 per cent of removals under this Government have been enforced, and an even smaller percentage of small boat migrants are being deported – only seven per cent of small boat arrivals have been removed under this Labour Government.

This Labour Government is trying to deceive the British public by saying it is closing asylum hotels.

Conveniently, Labour leaves out that there are now 7,000 more migrants in dispersal accommodation than at the time of the General Election.

The British people know that hardly anyone is being sent home, and they know that illegal immigrants are simply being moved from hotels into flats and houses.

At the same time, the Labour Government is allowing illegal immigrants to get British citizenship by reversing our reforms to ban illegal immigrants from getting citizenship.

Illegal immigrants should never be allowed to obtain citizenship – they should be removed within a week of arriving in the UK.

And any talk from the Labour Government about reforming Article 8 of the ECHR is just a “political trick" – in the words of the soon-to-be former Attorney General, Lord Hermer.

They know this will not make any difference, as illegal immigrants will simply use Article 3 of the ECHR to stay in the UK instead.

Article 3 is an ‘absolute’ right, meaning there are no exceptions.

We need to leave the ECHR completely so that we can deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival.

We must also remove all foreign national offenders – as 10,000 are taking up spaces in our prisons and 20,000 are roaming around the community despite the fact that they should be on a plane home.

We must also end the use of modern slavery claims as a basis for people to stay in the UK and narrow the use of judicial review in immigration cases to cases only where the Government is acting outside its statutory powers.

These sweeping reforms are essential to restore Parliamentary control over our immigration system.

The British people rightly expect action to control our borders, but the Labour Government is failing to deliver.