Rishi Sunak vows to clamp down on ‘spurious’ asylum claims says Labour has ‘no plans’ to tackle small boats

RISHI Sunak has vowed to clamp down on “spurious” asylum claims today and accused Sir Keir Starmer of having “no plans” to stop small boats.

In his second ever PMQs as leader, Mr Sunak pledged to tackle illegal immigration by stopping economic migrants making fake claims that they are fleeing war zones or persecution.

AFP

Rishi Sunak has vowed to clamp down on “spurious” asylum claims in his second PMQs as Tory leader[/caption]

The PM hit out at Labour MPs who voted against the Nationality and Borders Act, which helps to crackdown on false claims.

Mr Sunak said: “We do need to tackle the issue of people putting spurious, repeated last-minute claims to frustrate the process.

“That’s how we’ll tackle the asylum system.”

Looking at Sir Keir, a fiery Mr Sunak added: “He voted against the Nationality and Borders Act, he said he said he would scrap the Rwanda partnership and he opposed the ending of free movement of people. that border control.

“Border Control is a serious complex issue… You can’t attack a plan if you don’t have a plan.”

The Home Office has come under fire this week following reports of massive overcrowding at the Manston migrant processing centre in Kent.

Conditions at the centre have been labelled by officials as “extremely concerning”.

Yesterday, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said the number of people inside has “fallen substantially”.

Last Sunday 468 migrants arrived in Britain on small boats, after nearly 1,000 came on Saturday.

There are predictions that the overall number of channel crossings could hit 60,000 by the year’s end.

The overwhelming numbers are putting huge amounts of pressure on the asylum system, which is struggling to keep up.

Mr Sunak said: “We on this side of the House are clear. We want to defend our borders.

“The Home Secretary and I when it comes to tackling migration are on the same page. (Labour’s) policy is a blank page.”

Hitting back at the PM, Sir Keir said Labour voted against the Borders Bill because “it wouldn’t work and it hasn’t worked”.

He added that the Rwanda deportation scheme has cost £114 million pounds, but so far not a single migrant has been sent off to the East African state.

Meanwhile, 4 per cent of people who arrived on small boats last year still haven’t had their asylum claims processed.