Education Secretary says asylum reforms ‘will be a fair system’ amid concerns

The reformed asylum system will be a “fair system” despite concerns from senior Labour figures over the changes, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said.

A raft of measures were set out on Monday to overhaul the asylum system, aimed at deterring illegal migration to the UK and making it easier to deport people.

The plans faced criticism from a number of Labour backbenchers which they said echoed the rhetoric of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and would leave refugees in “a permanent sense of limbo”.

The proposed changes include making refugee status temporary, subject to reviews every 30 months, and sending refugees home if their country is deemed safe.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told LBC on Wednesday he was not  “comfortable” with a policy of deporting families with children if they have no right to be in the UK, but “it is the right thing to do”.

Asked on Thursday about her view, Ms Phillipson told reporters: “Our country has always been open, tolerant and outward looking, but if we want to maintain public confidence in the immigration and asylum system, then it’s right we take action.

“We’ve responded to what people have been telling us, but it will be a fair system, but a system with a clear set of rules and rules that will be enforced.”

Asked if she was comfortable with removing children with their families, she added: “Well, we won’t be separating families, but it is right that we, in order to maintain public confidence in the system, that we have a fair set of rules, a set of rules that are enforced and that people can be confident that we’ve got clear control of what’s happening at the border.”

On Monday, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs it was the “uncomfortable truth” that the UK’s generous asylum offer, compared with other European countries, is drawing people to UK shores, and for British taxpayers the system “feels out of control and unfair”.

Her plans to return families by force if necessary also drew criticism from the Albanian prime minister, who said it was “ethnic stereotyping”, after she singled out about 700 Albanian families “living in taxpayer-funded accommodation having failed their asylum claims”.

When asked about deporting families by LBC, Mr Streeting said on Wednesday that those with no right to be in the UK will be supported to relocate voluntarily so the actual number of forced removals “should be low”.

But pressed on whether he was comfortable forcing them to leave, he added: “Honestly? Comfortable? No. But is it the right thing to do for the country? Yes.”

Ms Mahmood has said she was considering “a big increase” in payments for migrants to return voluntarily to their home countries, saying the policy represented “value for money”.

On Thursday, Labour mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said he has “concerns” about the plan to make refugees wait 20 years to apply for permanent residency, quadrupled from the five years currently.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I agree that Shabana Mahmood is right to grasp this nettle and have root-and-branch reform of the system.

“I agree with that, but I do have a concern about leaving people without the ability to settle.

“One of the concerns being that if there’s a need to constantly check up on the status of countries where people have come from, that might limit the ability of the Home Office to deal with the backlog.

“And it also may leave people in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate.”

When asked about the proposal that refugees should not have permanent status for 20 years, he said: “I have concerns about that particular element of the plans.

“I think it will leave people in a position where they don’t know whether they’re staying or potentially leaving, and particularly in situations where people are wanting to work, wanting to contribute, I think, it would be better to stick with the decision of long-term leave to remain.”