Dame Angela Eagle refused to set a date for when we will see a reduction in small boat crossings – as ministers tout more migrant removals since Labour was elected than in any other six-month period in the past five years. Listen to the latest Electoral Dysfunction podcast as you scroll.
Sunday 15 December 2024 16:00, UK
Next with border security minister Dame Angela Eagle, we turn to her area of responsibility, and note that Thursday was the busiest December day for small boat crossings on record.
She jumps in to reply that it was the busiest day “partially because we had nine days with no arrivals”, and says there was “pent-up demand” because of the “industrialised people smuggling gangs”.
We ask what is happening with smashing the gangs – a goal that seems rather far away.
The minister says the gangs are “very well-established”, and have been “allowed to industrialise their process with very sophisticated supply lines” throughout Europe.
To that end, their strategy is to make agreements and work with European countries to break those down.
She goes on: “I’m not going to sit here and say that, when you’re presented with something that’s this well established and this sophisticated, that I can get out a magic wand wave and it’ll all be okay in five months.
“This is a tough job. It will take time to do it, it will take good operational cooperation, good cross-border policing.”
Trevor Phillips asks how long it will take to get numbers down, the minister says: “I’m not going to sit here and give you a date.”
She says ministers have previously done that and failed to deliver, and what the public actually wants to see is “steady, regular progress”.
Her message is: “If you’re here illegally, we want you to leave.”
Thank you for joining us for live coverage of today’s events in politics, including this week’s edition of Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
Scroll down to read and watch what our guests told us, plus analysis of the key stories. We were joined on the show by:
Join us again tomorrow from 6am for the very latest political news.
The prime minister and chancellor were in lockstep as they reacted to Friday morning’s GDP figures.
“Disappointing”, the PM’s spokesperson said, echoing Rachel Reeves’s words two hours earlier.
The UK economy shrunk for a second month, contracting 0.1% in October.
The government’s message: bear with us, it will take more than a few months to make up for years of economic stagnation; theirs is a long-term, sustainable plan rather than a short-term sugar rush.
They will need public patience to hold.
Labour’s promise to turbocharge economic growth has already hit trouble.
We don’t know how higher National Insurance contributions will weigh on business and economic activity, or whether ambitious plans to build houses will quantifiably impact growth by the next general election.
There is also the question of what the second Trump presidency, and his talk of tariffs, will mean for the UK economy.
The fastest growth in the G7 is still the official target, but it looks increasingly difficult to achieve.
What’s interesting is that Number 10 appears to be talking a little less about growth and the overall economic outlook, and more about personal finances.
By Alix Culbertson, political reporter
Former home secretary David Blunkett has said the government “doesn’t owe you” if people “can’t be bothered” to work.
Lord Blunkett, who was also work and pensions secretary under Tony Blair, said some young people are facing pressure from their families to stay out of work because they can lose their housing benefit or allowance once they have a job, even if it is low paid.
Currently, claimants’ housing benefit is reduced by 65p for every £1 of income above the amount they are eligible to receive for housing.
The Labour peer, 77, said the government needs to create a balance where it is “absolutely clear that getting up in the morning and going to work and having a work ethic pays”.
“If you can’t be bothered, then I’m afraid we don’t owe you,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
“We have an obligation to help people.
“We don’t have an obligation to help people if they’re not prepared to help themselves.”
He added entire households should face losing their housing benefit if they do not look for work.
The prime minister wants 1.5 million new homes built over the next five years and has said the government will step in to overrule local councils who don’t help deliver on his plans.
Keir Starmer said “if a local plan does the job, there’s no need for any intervention”, but should it be needed he’s said his priorities are “brownfield first, grey site next, and green belt last”.
Brownfield
This refers to land that’s been built on already but isn’t in use any more.
It could be things like old office blocks and industrial sites.
This is the easiest land to get approval to build new housing on, and is generally welcomed given it doesn’t contribute to urban sprawl or encroach upon the environment.
Grey belt
This was touted a lot by Labour during the election as a sort of middle ground between brownfield and green belt.
This could bring things like old golf courses and shopping centres into play, which may technically be in green belt areas but have been built on and are now not in use.
Green belt
This is the term given to land being protected from building.
It’s not necessarily just rolling fields and splendour – it could even include land that’s already been built on, but local authorities just don’t want to expand further.
It’s often around the edges of cities, towns and villages, designed to prevent them from getting bigger.
By Adam Boulton, Sky News commentator
The United Kingdom is made up of four nations: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England, but they are not equal.
England alone accounts for more than 80% of the Union’s population, wealth and Members of Parliament.
Ensuring fairness between all the citizens in the UK is a permanent headache for any Westminster government.
Thanks to devolution brought in by the last Labour government, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have elected parliaments or assemblies of their own. England does not.
What is more, government spending per head of population is significantly and consistently higher outside England. In the years 2021/22 it was 18% more in Northern Ireland, 17% in Scotland and 13% in Wales.
This week [on Monday] the new Labour government is publishing the latest attempt to address the problem or, at least, to appease England’s sense of grievance. The English Devolution Bill was promised in July’s King’s Speech and now it is being published.
The word “devolution” implies that England will be getting some of what the other nations have got. That is not the case.
More than 35,000 migrants have arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats so far this year, the latest figures show.
On Saturday, 160 people made the journey from France, bringing the total for this year to 35,040 – 20% higher than last year.
The number of small boat crossings for the whole of 2023 was 29,437, which was surpassed on 25 October this year when the total for 2024 reached 29,578.
Figures for the week leading up to Saturday show there were no small boat arrivals between Sunday 8 and Wednesday 11 December.
However, 609 people made the crossing in nine small boats on Thursday – making it the busiest December day for crossings on record.
A further 298 people made the journey in five small boats on Friday.
The Home Office announced today that almost 13,460 migrants had been removed from the UK since Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won by a landslide election victory in July.
The Labour government has said this means more migrants have been removed from the country since it was elected than in any other six-month period over the past five years.
By Trevor Phillips, Sunday Morning presenter
I don’t know how good a batter Dame Angela Eagle was when she played for Lancashire schools, but it comes as no surprise that her cricketing hero is the former England opener, Geoffrey Boycott, famed for his ability to stay at the crease for hours – even in the face of the most hostile attack.
No wonder Sir Keir Starmer gave her the brief of border security and asylum – the stickiest of wickets for any government.
On Sunday Morning she played the straightest of bats, refusing to give a date by which she expects the numbers of crossings to fall.
She also padded away the suggestion by Sir Tony Blair that we introduce identity cards. My Sunday Morning colleague Jack Parker reports below that we, along with other English-speaking nations, are outliers; most big nations in Europe have already adopted them.
However it does it, this administration urgently needs to make a dent in the flow of illegals.
Without demonstrating that they can bring the illegal flow under control, it’s hard to see how they win public backing for the legal migration of hundreds of thousands of workers in sectors such as construction. And without those brickies, painters, electricians and plumbers, Chancellor Rachel Reeves can kiss goodbye to her growth plans.
It’s a sign of how desperate the government is to solve the dilemma that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has flown to Rome this weekend in the hope of striking a cooperation deal with Italy’s nativist, anti-immigrant leaders – hardly natural bedfellows for a centre-left government.
But as often happens, the batter who handles spin and swing with ease is undone by the straightest of deliveries.
Asked whether the government has any idea of the number of undocumented migrants in the UK, Dame Angela claimed that it was impossible to know, since these people are more or less, by definition, invisible to the authorities.
Yet other nations do know.
The USA’s Census Bureau’s figures provide a regular estimate, currently standing at 11.2 million. In 2023, Italy counted the number for just one year at 195,000. Germany and the EU provide similar data.
The fact that we don’t even seem to want to try may come back to haunt ministers in years to come.
Kemi Badenoch has given an interview this morning in which she was asked about her proposals for reducing migration.
The Tory leader told GB News that she wants a cap on the number of arrivals, but that it is “not enough on its own”.
“Culture matters more,” she said. “Who is coming into the country? How are we integrating them? How are we making sure that the people who come to this country care about it?
“This is not a hostel. It’s not a dormitory. This is our home.”
But on the question of a cap on numbers, she said: “What I don’t do is just make random promises without explaining where it’s all going to come from.
“So I said that a cap would be needed. But what was that cap going to be? Let’s work out what we can sustain.”
A “very systemic review” of how many homes will be needed and what skills are needed for the economy should be done, she argued.
“We need to work out what the country can sustain and where people are coming from,” Mrs Badenoch continued, saying that if arbitrary numbers are just thrown out there and that is not delivered, the public will “think that we are being dishonest”.
She defended the previous government’s handling of migration, however, saying: “We are living in an era of global mass migration. It is not just the UK. I’ve been to Italy, I’ve been to Australia, I’ve been to the US, Germany – everybody is having these problems.
“We have to think about how we deal with this new world problem. This problem did not start because of Conservatives. It’s happening everywhere.”
Beth, Harriet, and Ruth with their first Christmas episodes – answering your emails and voice notes.
From how to modernise the House of Lords, to what the fall of the Assad regime in Syria means for women.
And, who hosts the best Christmas party in Westminster?
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Email us at electoraldysfunction@sky.uk, post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.
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