Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

No, I will not. The Bill should be seen in the context of a substantive political debate. Last February, we proposed a series of plans and policies on asylum and immigration. We published a five-year plan, on which the Prime Minister elaborated in the course of the general election. The Bill addresses much of that, but as I said in Committee it constitutes a series of building blocks. I mean no discourtesy in respect of previous pieces of legislation introduced by the Labour Government when I say that the Bill is not, and was not offered up as, an all-singing, all-dancing omnibus Bill that answers every conceivable question on the range of immigration, asylum and nationality issues. I made it clear in Committee and on Second Reading and that much of what is in the Bill should be seen as building blocks. Although that does not fit in terribly well with our processes and how we do what we do, I said that the Bill needed to be read in the context of the five-year plan and all that we seek to do in that plan in terms not simply of immigration, but of asylum and how we are trying to secure our borders through the e-borders programme and the border management programme. We are putting out for public discussion every aspect of where we are with asylum and immigration. It would be remiss of me, as my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said on Second Reading, if the Bill, as it is now to be dispatched to the other place, were not put in the context of the political debate. I make no apologies for mentioning again that collectively the British polity, British public policy and the British media did not serve themselves or others well by the way in which these matters were covered during the general election. Throughout the election, these matters were discussed in terms and in a form that was proxy for a debate that we may or may not need on community cohesion, on race and on other such issues. They were wrapped up in rather bogus fashion as constituting a serious debate. I fully concur, not least as the Minister responsible for immigration, that such a debate is needed. We need a debate on asylum and immigration matters, but the way that such matters were discussed during the general election is a matter of shame, not least for the Conservative party. I am extremely pleased that none of the dripping poison that polluted our democratic process was evident in Committee. I heartily congratulate every Conservative Member in Committee for not going down the route that their central party took during the general election. I freely attest that that route was not taken by the hon. Member for Woking (Mr. Malins); nor was it taken by the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan). However, in the context of the general election they should collectively hang their heads in shame and send the running dog from Australia back to where he came from.