UK Parliament / Open data

Immigration Controls

Opposition day on Tuesday, 21 October 2008, in the House of Commons, led by Damian Green. The answering member was Baroness Smith of Malvern.
Immigration controls. Nineteenth opposition day debate (part 1). Motion negatived on division (355 to 164). Amendment agreed on division (281 to 199)
Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
481 c166-227 
Session
2007-08
Department
Home Office
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 481 c187 (Link to this contribution) Order. I remind the House that from now on there will be a 10-minute limit on Back-Bench contributio...
Patrick Mercer | 481 c176 (Link to this contribution) I am most grateful to the Home Secretary for her generosity. I was at the meeting in Sylhet to which...

Show all contributions (168)
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c176-7 (Link to this contribution) I have just identified the way in which the points-based system would have ensured that, had the ski...
Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston | 481 c177 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Opposition's case is much weakened by their refusal to dist...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c177 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a very important point. The Conservatives are a party that went into the genera...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c177 (Link to this contribution) The hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield might be a fluent French speaker, but we have heard nei...
Denis MacShane | 481 c177 (Link to this contribution) I very much agree with the Home Secretary's arguments, but I ask her to be little bit careful in tal...
Dominic Grieve | 481 c178 (Link to this contribution) I am most grateful to the Home Secretary. First, may I just clear up this point, about which she ask...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c175 (Link to this contribution) I am responsible for a lot of things, but I am not, thank goodness, responsible for what the chair o...
Lord Field of Birkenhead | 481 c176 (Link to this contribution) Before the Home Secretary finishes her speech, will she share with the House what thinking the Gover...
Anne Main | 481 c175 (Link to this contribution) On the points-based system, would the Secretary of State like to comment on the fact that while her ...
Dominic Grieve | 481 c176 (Link to this contribution) Will the Home Secretary give way?
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c176 (Link to this contribution) No. The important issue in terms of the points system is that by adjusting the points and requireme...
Pete Wishart | 481 c176 (Link to this contribution) Will the Home Secretary give way?
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c176 (Link to this contribution) I shall come on to the precise point my right hon. Friend makes, and may I also say that I believe t...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c176 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the hon. Gentleman, although I note that I have given way far more times than the...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c176 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way to the hon. and learned Gentleman. If he wanted to have his say, he should h...
Lee Scott | 481 c174 (Link to this contribution) Will the Home Secretary give way?
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c175 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend, from a position of considerable expertise, makes the very important point that we ne...
Margaret Moran | 481 c175 (Link to this contribution) As the Home Secretary says, does not the points system give us the flexibility to enable us to impor...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c175 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the hon. Lady for persistence.
Anne Main | 481 c175 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c174 (Link to this contribution) I was, before the hon. Gentleman made his slightly pointless intervention, going through the Governm...
Lee Scott | 481 c174 (Link to this contribution) In light of the Minister of State's comments at the weekend, will the right hon. Lady confirm that s...
Anne Main | 481 c174 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Lady give way?
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c173 (Link to this contribution) It is, of course, important—as I have just said—that we have speeded up decision making, and we are ...
Anne Main | 481 c174 (Link to this contribution) Will the Home Secretary give way?
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c174 (Link to this contribution) I know that the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member of Mid-Worcestershire (Mr. Luff) have raised this...
James Paice | 481 c174 (Link to this contribution) Why do the Government continue to confuse the seasonal agricultural workers scheme, under which all ...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c174 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an important point and I refer her simply to last week's Government announcemen...
Claire Curtis-Thomas | 481 c173 (Link to this contribution) Many of my constituents will be concerned about immigrants coming into this country and notionally s...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c173 (Link to this contribution) I am coming on to how precisely we have introduced a system that will enable us to be flexible and t...
Nigel Evans | 481 c173 (Link to this contribution) I welcome any increase in border security, but the Home Secretary does not believe that there ought ...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c173 (Link to this contribution) No. Given that the hon. Member for Ashford accepted only four interventions, I wish to make a bit of...
Paul Rowen | 481 c173 (Link to this contribution) Will the Home Secretary give way?
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c178-9 (Link to this contribution) I am going to make a bit of progress. In the space of three years, we will have doubled the enforce...
Damian Green | 481 c168 (Link to this contribution) What a choice! I will give way to the right hon. Gentleman, as he has been commenting on this issue ...
Speaker | 481 c166 (Link to this contribution) We come to the main business. I inform the House that in both debates I have selected the amendments...
Lord Field of Birkenhead | 481 c168 (Link to this contribution) Given that the hon. Gentleman has now committed his party so clearly to introducing a cap, will he t...
Damian Green | 481 c168 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman will be pleased to hear that I shall be coming to that point later. Some o...
Damian Green | 481 c168 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way just once or twice, because I am aware that many people want to speak in the debate...
Damian Green | 481 c166-7 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House notes that the Government's immigration policy has resulted in a quad...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c171-2 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, To leave out from ““House”” to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:"“...
Damian Green | 481 c170-1 (Link to this contribution) I have given way enough. Ministers are disingenuous in always referring to their system as being li...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c172 (Link to this contribution) The point is that Members will hear from both me and my hon. Friend the immigration Minister today, ...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c172 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way yet. I believe that people understand that migration can bring benefits to ...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c172 (Link to this contribution) The hon. and learned Gentleman cannot have it both ways. He cannot roll up and intervene, but not be...
Dominic Grieve | 481 c172 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Home Secretary. I happily eschewed the possibility of addressing the House in r...
Jeremy Corbyn | 481 c172 (Link to this contribution) While my right hon. Friend is on the subject of asylum, may I ask whether she is concerned about the...
Gerald Howarth | 481 c172 (Link to this contribution) The Home Secretary says that she has a robust system in operation. Can she explain why constituents ...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c172 (Link to this contribution) I am sure the hon. Gentleman will be relieved to know that last year we removed one person from the ...
Denis MacShane | 481 c168 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman define an immigrant for the purposes of this debate? Are Irish non-British c...
Damian Green | 481 c168-9 (Link to this contribution) What the right hon. Gentleman characterises as a Tory definition of an immigrant is exactly the same...
Phyllis Starkey | 481 c169 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman's motion quotes the report by my Select Committee on Communities and Local Govern...
Damian Green | 481 c169 (Link to this contribution) What the hon. Lady's Committee said—I have the quote here—is:"““The… pace of change… in some areas h...
Damian Green | 481 c169 (Link to this contribution) I have given way enough for the time being. The fact that the Government's policy is failing is sor...
Damian Green | 481 c169 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to my hon. Friend, but that will be for the last time.
Humfrey Malins | 481 c169 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the total inefficiency of the Government and the Home Office over the...
Damian Green | 481 c169-70 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is precisely right. It has indeed been a decade of incompetence and in his honest mom...
Rob Marris | 481 c218 (Link to this contribution) On a connected point, I hope that the Minister can tackle this loophole. I get complaints from some ...
Phil Woolas | 481 c218 (Link to this contribution) The example that my hon. Friend gave is something with which I am very familiar in my constituency a...
Damian Green | 481 c218 (Link to this contribution) The Minister has just said two contradictory things again, as he keeps doing. He told the right hon....
Phil Woolas | 481 c217 (Link to this contribution) That is not what I am saying at all, and it is not the implication of what I am saying. There is a c...
Damian Green | 481 c217 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister make it clear that he is saying that the Government intend to lower the number of ...
Phil Woolas | 481 c217 (Link to this contribution) I would say that every utterance of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is significant, whatever...
Lord Field of Birkenhead | 481 c217 (Link to this contribution) Might the Minister find time before he finishes to comment on what I thought was the most significan...
Damian Green | 481 c218 (Link to this contribution) There will be no automatic right. The Minister told the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (R...
Phil Woolas | 481 c218-9 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is deliberately sowing confusion between the work-based element and the spouse-ba...
Lord Lilley | 481 c202 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that they are either necessary or desirable for the simple reason that there is littl...
Anne Main | 481 c202 (Link to this contribution) The Communities and Local Government Committee visited Peterborough and talked to residents, many of...
Lord Lilley | 481 c202 (Link to this contribution) That is certainly true, and I found that when I represented much of the seat now represented with su...
Stephen Pound | 481 c202 (Link to this contribution) That is a parody of what I said. We all know the consequences if a group of people descend into inbr...
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c200 (Link to this contribution) This follows on from what my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) said...
Stephen Pound | 481 c200 (Link to this contribution) I accept that the tone has changed since the late Enoch Powell, when he was Health Minister, spent t...
Lord Lilley | 481 c200-1 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate, which is so different in tone and content ...
Ian Davidson | 481 c201 (Link to this contribution) Given that the right hon. Gentleman seems to be expressing the view that there should be controls on...
Stephen Pound | 481 c199-200 (Link to this contribution) Not for the first time, people conflate asylum with immigration. We are not talking about asylum. It...
Alistair Burt | 481 c199 (Link to this contribution) Before the hon. Gentleman completely wipes the slate clean about how these matters were handled in t...
Phil Woolas | 481 c216-7 (Link to this contribution) I know the hon. Gentleman well; his constituency covers Yarl's Wood and he has a deep knowledge of i...
Phil Woolas | 481 c215 (Link to this contribution) I thank right hon. and hon. Members for kindly welcoming me to my new job; I am especially grateful ...
Alistair Burt | 481 c215-6 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the Minister to his position; we have sparred a number of times in other contexts, and it ...
Martin Salter | 481 c210-1 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is inviting me to bring my conclusions into the middle of my speech. I think that...
James Brokenshire | 481 c211-5 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted by the welcome given by many Members on the Government Benches to this debate. When I...
Martin Salter | 481 c208-10 (Link to this contribution) I see that the immigration Minister has returned to the Chamber, and I welcome him back to his place...
Andrew Pelling | 481 c210 (Link to this contribution) Given the hon. Gentleman's expertise having served on the Select Committee, does he feel that the po...
Mark Field | 481 c205-8 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the thought-provoking contribution of the hon. Member for Elmet (Colin Bu...
Colin Burgon | 481 c203-5 (Link to this contribution) I begin by doing something that is very unusual for me—defending a Manchester United supporter; I un...
Lord Lilley | 481 c203 (Link to this contribution) In parodying the hon. Gentleman, I was taking over his normal role, and I apologise for that. I bec...
Lord Field of Birkenhead | 481 c196 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Lady accept that if we had a Government who were more successful in controlling ...
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c196 (Link to this contribution) It is obviously in the interests of fairness and efficiency to resolve people's cases. With my syste...
Ian Davidson | 481 c195 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. Lady believe that we need managed controls on future EU migration, particularly ...
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c195 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I have heard you make no pronouncement on this subject for a very long t...
Paul Rowen | 481 c195 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Lady give way?
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c195 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I do. I think that experience teaches us that we must find some method of ensuring that we can ...
Paul Rowen | 481 c196 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Lady give way?
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c195-6 (Link to this contribution) I want to pursue this issue for a while as it relates directly to a point raised by the Home Secreta...
Paul Rowen | 481 c196 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Lady. Does she agree that in addition to the abuse, perhaps the grea...
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c196 (Link to this contribution) I will in half a second. The greatest resentment that people feel towards immigrants is towards thos...
Stephen Pound | 481 c199 (Link to this contribution) No, I do not agree with my hon. Friend on this occasion, but I do believe in a managed, balanced mig...
David Leslie Taylor | 481 c198 (Link to this contribution) I would be grateful if my hon. Friend could find the time during his contribution to respond to the ...
Stephen Pound | 481 c197-8 (Link to this contribution) Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, I stand corrected. It is absolutely right t...
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c197 (Link to this contribution) I meant that Poland was a former eastern bloc country, which it was.
Stephen Pound | 481 c197 (Link to this contribution) It is an honour and a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Wid...
Stephen Pound | 481 c199 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend, in his seductive way, tries to lead me down a different byway.
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c196-7 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman and all the House will accept that, whatever we do, people will try to find...
Lord Field of Birkenhead | 481 c187 (Link to this contribution) I wish to make two very simple points. I speak as joint chairman of the all-party group on balanced ...
Parmjit Dhanda | 481 c187 (Link to this contribution) I am listening with real interest to my right hon. Friend, who has a lot of experience in these matt...
Chris Huhne | 481 c185-6 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is wrong. The way that the scheme operates in Australia works well. There are the...
Ian Davidson | 481 c185 (Link to this contribution) Do I take it that it is Liberal Democrat policy for scores of Government inspectors to tour the sout...
Chris Huhne | 481 c185 (Link to this contribution) That would be enforced in exactly the same way as we currently enforce immigration control within ou...
Chris Huhne | 481 c186-7 (Link to this contribution) I shall not give way any more. I have been unusually generous in doing so and I must make progress. ...
Chris Huhne | 481 c186 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that point. That is not the experience in Australia....
Anne Main | 481 c183-4 (Link to this contribution) I served on the Communities and Local Government Committee, and the report to which its Chairman ref...
Chris Huhne | 481 c184-5 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for that intervention; I entirely agree with the sentiment. On the other hand—and I ho...
Damian Green | 481 c185 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman accuses the Home Secretary and me of not telling him things. Can he tell us how, ...
Chris Huhne | 481 c182 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right to remind me and the House of that, but this country had certain specifi...
Chris Huhne | 481 c183 (Link to this contribution) I will, although I think that I am giving way even more than the Home Secretary did. However, I am d...
Stephen Pound | 481 c182 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Chris Huhne | 481 c183 (Link to this contribution) I will not share those figures with the House, as I am sure the hon. Gentleman can tell us off the t...
Stephen Pound | 481 c183 (Link to this contribution) I am profoundly grateful to the hon. Gentleman, and I shall try not to disappoint him. He referred t...
Chris Huhne | 481 c183 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend, as he has made the matter extremely clear. The third element of th...
Simon Hughes | 481 c183 (Link to this contribution) Before my hon. Friend moves on, does he agree that our party has always argued for certain principle...
Chris Huhne | 481 c182 (Link to this contribution) It does not take any years at all to understand it. The official Opposition cannot escape responsib...
Gordon Prentice | 481 c182 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman was speaking about Liberal Democrat policy but now he is straying back to the 199...
Chris Huhne | 481 c182 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is clearly not as great a student of Liberal Democrat policy as he pretends to be...
Dominic Grieve | 481 c182 (Link to this contribution) It takes many years to understand it.
David TC Davies | 481 c181 (Link to this contribution) I am very interested in what the hon. Gentleman is saying. It is the first time, I think, that I hav...
Chris Huhne | 481 c181 (Link to this contribution) I entirely accept that, but the Home Secretary also has to accept that her Government, whom she has ...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c181 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not understand what I spelled out in my speech? We have closed off tier 3 of...
Chris Huhne | 481 c181 (Link to this contribution) I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that point, which he has made before. I shall come on t...
Pete Wishart | 481 c181 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman accept that throughout the UK each constituent nation has different requirem...
Chris Huhne | 481 c181 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. He certainly has a lot of expertise in the ma...
Lembit Opik | 481 c180-1 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that countries such as Estonia, with which I am very familiar, have a migr...
Ian Davidson | 481 c180 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that there is a difference between those two groups, in that many of t...
Chris Huhne | 481 c180 (Link to this contribution) I certainly agree that there is a difference, but the hon. Gentleman may not like the difference tha...
Denis MacShane | 481 c180 (Link to this contribution) I am at one with that last argument. Does the hon. Gentleman share my sympathy with a south Yorkshir...
Chris Huhne | 481 c180 (Link to this contribution) I have the utmost respect for the right hon. Gentleman's investigative skills, but perhaps he could ...
Chris Huhne | 481 c179-80 (Link to this contribution) We welcome this debate; the motion is right to highlight the chaos of the Government's immigration p...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c179 (Link to this contribution) I apologise to my hon. Friend, but I am coming to a conclusion. When it comes to protecting our bor...
Chris Huhne | 481 c194 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for giving way, because I wanted to intervene on the right hon....
Speaker | 481 c194 (Link to this contribution) Order. I am sorry to have to correct the hon. Gentleman, but he has continually used the second pers...
Chris Huhne | 481 c194 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Lady give way on the point that she has just made?
Chris Huhne | 481 c194 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Lady give way?
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c194 (Link to this contribution) I should like to continue for a short while, but I promise to give way later.
Roger Godsiff | 481 c193 (Link to this contribution) As always, my hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and, as always, I agree with him. It is right t...
Ann Widdecombe | 481 c193-4 (Link to this contribution) I think it beyond dispute that the Government have mishandled immigration. In recent months, they ha...
Roger Godsiff | 481 c192-3 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow my right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) and the hon. M...
Ian Davidson | 481 c193 (Link to this contribution) Given that parts of my constituency have similar male unemployment figures, does my hon. Friend agre...
Lord Soames of Fletching | 481 c191-2 (Link to this contribution) I will not give way. Hence our proposal arises to permit skilled workers from outside the EU to com...
Lord Soames of Fletching | 481 c190-1 (Link to this contribution) I commend the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) on his speech and hope that the House lis...
Ian Davidson | 481 c191 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman is prepared to accept that there has to be action on the 68 per cent. of immig...
Lord Soames of Fletching | 481 c191 (Link to this contribution) That is certainly the elephant in the hon. Gentleman's room. The answer is that we are obliged by tr...
Chris Huhne | 481 c191 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Lord Field of Birkenhead | 481 c188-9 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman took a very long time, and I am anxious that other Members should get a chance. ...
Lord Field of Birkenhead | 481 c188 (Link to this contribution) I am particularly grateful for that intervention and would like to emphasise the key words that my h...
Phil Woolas | 481 c218 (Link to this contribution) In anticipation of further elucidation of how the Opposition will square their policy by saying to t...
Stephen Pound | 481 c198 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend seldom rises in the House without enlightening us. He scatters the caliginosity that ...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c174-5 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Member for Ashford and the shadow Home Secretary believe so strongly in the merits of th...
Rob Marris | 481 c186 (Link to this contribution) I expect that I know rather more about the Canadian system than the hon. Gentleman knows about the A...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c178 (Link to this contribution) Fair point: why does the hon. and learned Gentleman not make a speech if he has something to say? He...
Lord Field of Birkenhead | 481 c189 (Link to this contribution) I want to finish now, if I may. However, it is important that we in the House begin to think of a t...
Ian Davidson | 481 c198 (Link to this contribution) Given that my hon. Friend is on his train of challenging sacred cows and listening to the views of o...
Baroness Smith of Malvern | 481 c177 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. and learned Gentleman for another go.
Subjects
Borders
Employment
Housing
Immigration controls
Immigration
Entry clearances
Economic situation
Monitoring
Population
Statistics
Visas
EU immigration
Work permits
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
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