I would agree with my hon. Friend that the Bill could go through, but that does not guarantee legal success, as he knows. He is right to say that there is a respectable legal argument to be made for it, but a respectable legal argument does not guarantee success. I want, not least because of the poll that he and others have cited, to see us taking clear and effective action on this. To be successful, that clear and effective action must be able to survive the potential legal challenges. I argue in favour of the tightrope on which the Government are walking not because I lack conviction but because I want to see action as quickly as possible on an issue that, I hear from my constituents day in, day out, has a clear and real impact on their lives.
Only yesterday, the Home Office announced that it is closing another two hotels in my constituency that are being used to house asylum seekers. The global migration crisis is on the doorstep of constituents in Boston and Skegness, which is why we must tackle it effectively. I will take no lectures from anyone in this Committee on my personal commitment to tackling this issue, and I want the Government to stay on the tightrope and to get on with addressing this vital matter.
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I fear the signals that amendment 10 would send, as it would mean this country is able to ignore more of the European convention on human rights, more of the refugee convention and more of a whole host of international agreements. Surely, having helped to write those agreements 70 years ago, this country has a duty, as my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton North East (Jane Stevenson) said, to see them reformed and improved. Spain, Germany, Italy and France do not think the refugee convention is working for them either, and I do not think it is working for this country or for my constituency. I want to see it reformed and
improved because, more than anything, the refugee convention is not working for refugees. The role of this great country surely should be to stay at the table and to work within a global system. The ECHR, the refugee convention and a whole host of other international agreements need to be better, and we have already seen some positive reforms, but we could see more if we stay at the table.
If we say those rules should not apply to us, we would be sending a signal that we are stepping back from that conversation. We would be saying that we are resiling rather than wanting to see reform. We would be saying that we want to back out rather than back ourselves in having a place in the world and a place at the table.