Lord Field of Birkenhead
Main Page: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Field of Birkenhead's debates with the Home Office
(13 years, 4 months ago)
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Damian Green
That is a perfectly valid question. We are in constant discussions with the Cabinet Office. There are, as the hon. Gentleman is aware, many court cases involving immigration issues. The lesson that I draw is that more and more should be put in the immigration rules and not simply in the guidance notes. We have already started to adopt that as a policy, and will do so in the future.
Mr Frank Field (Birkenhead) (Lab)
May I assure the Immigration Minister that, whatever the courts decide, there is huge support in the country, including in Labour constituencies, for the policy that the coalition Government are pursuing? Of course, if he were able to bring those measures within the law that would be an advantage, but voters want to see the numbers coming down.
Damian Green
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for that question. He shows a wisdom on this issue that is not available to the shadow Home Secretary, and he is right about what the public are asking—in Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour constituencies—about our policy of introducing a limit. The shadow Home Secretary has said:
“as many of us found in the election, our arguments on immigration were not good enough”,
and I have to say that they are still not good enough.