Who broke the asylum system? Sir Keir clashes with Rishi at PMQs as he calls for PM to appoint a 'proper' home secretary

2 November 2022, 12:23 | Updated: 2 November 2022, 13:29

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir clashed over Britain's asylum system
Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir clashed over Britain's asylum system. Picture: ParliamentTV/Alamy

By Will Taylor

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer clashed over who broke Britain's asylum system as they debated the migrant crisis at Prime Minister's Questions.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

The Labour leader asked how the blame could lie at anyone's feet other than the Tories', with Conservatives having spent more than a decade in power.

"His home secretary says the asylum system is broken. Who broke it?" Sir Keir said at the start of Wednesday's debate.

Speaking after jeers, Mr Sunak said the Tories delivered Brexit and ended free movement of people.

"That's our record on migration policy – it’s not something the honourable gentleman supported, he opposed it at every turn," the PM claimed.

But Sir Keir fired back that the Tories had "lost control" of the borders.

"Four Prime Ministers in five years... if the asylum system is broken and his lot have been in power for 12 years, how can it be anyone's fault but theirs?" he said.

Read more: Children moved from Manston 'prison camp' go missing as ministers vow crackdown will send migrants home 'within days'

The PM defended his Government's record on immigration
The PM defended his Government's record on immigration. Picture: Alamy

The PM said: "Let's look at the record… [Sir Keir] voted against the nationality and borders bill, he said he would scrap the Rwanda partnership, he opposed the ending of free movement of people.

"Look, border control is a serious, complex issue, but not only does the party opposite not have a plan, they have opposed every single measure we have taken to solve the problem.

"You can't attack a plan if you don't have a plan."

But Sir Keir said Labour had opposed measures which did not work.

Britain's asylum system has been criticised by all sides after it emerged the Manston migrant centre in Dover was dangerously overcrowded.

It is buckling in the face of an influx of people crossing the Channel – some 40,000 are thought to have crossed this year.

Home secretary Suella Braverman controversially branded it an "invasion".

Read more: Migrant centre firebomber Andy Leak, 66, shared far-Right content online ‘and lost penis to cancer’

The conditions at Manston immigration centre have been criticised
The conditions at Manston immigration centre have been criticised. Picture: Alamy

In October, 6,912 people crossed, including 1,065 in a single day. That was the third highest monthly amount this year - behind August and September, leading to questions over whether the Government is clueless as to stop the crossings.

The stick of the Rwanda policy - held up by legal wrangling amid human rights fears - has not deterred crossings, while ministers are hoping to arrange a fast track deportation scheme for Albanians given how many men from the Balkan state are among the migrants.

Migrants are only meant to be held at Manston - which has been likened to a "prison camp" and a "zoo" - while officials carry out security and identity checks.

They are then meant to go into the asylum system, often ending up in a hotel paid for by taxpayers, while others will go to detention centres if the Government thinks they have grounds to have them deported.

The centre is meant to process more than 1,000 people every day and the Home Office claims that it has largely done so this year.

By October 31, Tory MP Roger Gale said he believed about 4,000 were there, leading to concerns about whether the facility was overwhelmed.

The Home Office did not comment on how many people are there.

It has also emerged that hundreds of children have gone missing from hotels after being processed at Manston.

The facility itself has also been criticised, with people held there understood to have caught scabies while others have had their phones and cigarettes confiscated and forced to sleep on the floor.

The former RAF base was initially designed to only hold up to 1,600 people for a maximum of 48 hours but it has become a temporary home to almost 4,000 migrants in recent weeks.

Two migrants claimed they were being treated more like "animals in a zoo" while another, who spent 24 days at Manston, compared it to a "prison camp".

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Dorothy Chiles

Great-grandmother, 87, pictured for first time after deadly train station attack, as woman in her 20s arrested

President Donald Trump speaks on Wednesday night

Trump says 'the US wants its money back on Ukraine' as he makes plans to meet Putin and end war

Exclusive
Katie Amess has spoken out about the need for an inquiry into her father's murder by an Islamist terrorist

Daughter of Sir David Amess, MP murdered by Islamist terrorist, ‘made to sign NDA’ on report into father’s death

Exclusive
Angela Rayner reveals she took advice from NHS trauma specialists ahead of Grenfell demolition meeting

Angela Rayner reveals she took advice from NHS trauma specialists ahead of Grenfell demolition meeting

Italian F1 Grand Prix - Previews

Nightclub bouncer behind £12m plot to reveal Formula One star Michael Schumacher's health secrets jailed

Josef Fritzl

Incest monster Josef Fritzl could walk free from prison next year - and expects 'cheering crowds' to greet him

Ofsted's Chief Inspector Sir Martyn Oliver supports an extension to term times

'Time to think about school holidays': Ofsted's Chief Inspector supports extending term times

Exclusive
Angela Rayner insisted that British support for Ukraine was 'unwavering'

Rayner insists UK support for Ukraine 'unwavering' despite Trump's plan for 'immediate' peace talks with Putin

Prince William, President of BAFTA, operates a film camera as he visits the London Screen Academy in London, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

William tries his hand at being a cameraman on visit to London film academy

President Donald J. Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin during the G20 Japan Summit Friday, June 28, 2019, in Osaka, Japan.

Trump and Putin 'to meet in Saudi Arabia' and 'start negotiations immediately' to end war in Ukraine

Street scene in Peckham, London, with red bus

Bus driver, 76, found guilty of killing passenger who was run over while attempting to board vehicle

Norward Road, Lambeth, the proposed LTN.

Council staff given 'wellbeing day' after attending 'stormy' neighbourhood meeting

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, left, shakes hands with Britain's Defense Secretary John Healey prior to a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Feb.

Ukraine's NATO membership plans 'unrealistic' says US - as defence secretary claims US troops won't be peacekeepers

Jaysley Beck, 19, was found dead at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire

Officer accused of pinning down and trying to kiss soldier, 19, had been 'waiting for moment for them to be alone'

A public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks will begin 'within weeks'

Public inquiry into Nottingham attacks will begin 'within weeks', PM tells victims' families

Paul Allen.

Cagefighter guilty of Britain's largest cash robbery shot in neck in his kitchen in murder plot