Steve Yemm
Main Page: Steve Yemm (Labour - Mansfield)Department Debates - View all Steve Yemm's debates with the Home Office
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Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)
I am pleased to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer.
People in my constituency and, I think, right across the country are clear: they want an immigration system that is fair, but one that is controlled and works in the national interest. That is exactly what this Labour Government, led by the Home Secretary, intend to deliver.
Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)
On the point of fairness, constituents in Derby tell me that they are working hard to make a living and put their kids through school, but they are worried by retrospective changes to ILR. Does my hon. Friend agree that, to make the system completely fair, changes to ILR should not be retrospective?
Steve Yemm
I have met many people living in my constituency—workers from west Africa and from Asia—who make that case to me. I have written to the Home Secretary to support that case, and I hope the Government will look at the results of the consultation and think carefully about transitional arrangements for people who have been in the UK, working quite properly, for some time.
At the same time, as the Home Secretary has set out, it is important to recognise that the Government are restoring both control over the system and compassion. It is important not to choose one over the other, but to deliver both together. As a Government, we are taking decisive action to stop abuse of the system, and we will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds as a result. It is important to recognise that we are introducing a system where refugee status is not automatically permanent, but—
Feryal Clark (Enfield North) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that the measures are so sweeping that it is not just asylum seekers who are caught by them, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) mentioned, those who arrived under the ECAA route, also known as the Ankara agreement? They came to this country and set up businesses, they pay taxes, contribute to the country and have set up their lives here, and now, at just the time that they were about to apply for ILR, they are caught by these measures. Does he agree that transitional protections need to be announced as a matter of urgency?
Steve Yemm
It is important to recognise that position, and it is important that transitional arrangements are put in place for people who entered the country absolutely legally. Crucially, I hope my hon. Friend will also recognise that we are shifting the system away from dangerous and illegal routes, towards safe and legal pathways, because no one should be risking their lives in the hands of criminal gangs.
This is what good government looks like. It is about restoring trust in the system, it is about fairness, and it is about delivering for constituents like mine in Mansfield, who expect a system that is fair, controlled and in the national interest. This Labour Government are getting a grip, and I am proud to support them.