Robert Jenrick says the UK 'has too many migrants to integrate into society', as he warns of voters' 'red-hot fury'
8 December 2023, 22:26 | Updated: 9 December 2023, 00:50
Robert Jenrick has said the UK has too many migrants to integrate into society, in his first public comments after quitting as immigration minister over the emergency Rwanda legislation.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Mr Jenrick slammed the UK's immigration system as "farcical" as he claimed the Conservatives would feel the "red hot fury of voters at the ballot box" unless they acted quickly to bring down overseas arrivals.
The former immigration minister, who quit on Wednesday after Rishi Sunak announced emergency legislation to bring the Rwanda policy into law, said that the sheer number of people entering the UK made adapting to British society difficult.
Net migration to the UK hit 745,000 in the year to December 2022. Mr Sunak announced a five-point plan earlier this week to reduce it, but Mr Jenrick said he had not gone far enough.
Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said: "GP services and hospitals do not grow on trees. Integration is impossible if you let in over 1.2 million new people as we have done over the last two years.
Read more: Rishi Sunak to launch crackdown on legal migration by 'hiking minimum salary to £38k'
Laura Farris confirms Robert Jenrick has resigned
“There is no better example of the failed Westminster consensus over the last 30 years than allowing historically unprecedented levels of immigration, resulting in disastrous consequences for the country and at every stage ignoring the express wishes of voters.
"Centre-right parties across Europe have a choice – begin to deliver on the mainstream concerns of ordinary people when it comes to immigration or face their red-hot fury at the ballot box."
Mr Jenrick said Mr Sunak's Rwanda plan would fail to deter people from making small boats crossings over the Channel.
He wrote: "Having done as much as I could to strengthen the legislation I concluded, regrettably, the answer is no. It was therefore clear I could not continue, in good faith, in my position as the Bill’s minister.
"By allowing individuals to make claims that their circumstances mean they cannot be sent to Rwanda, the Bill invites each small boat arrival to concoct a reason to delay their removal.
"The small boat-chasing law firms will gladly assist them in this endeavour, and the smuggling gangs will quickly produce a well-tested narrative for their customers to deploy upon arrival."
Mr Jenrick's resignation was first confirmed on LBC, when Home Office minister Laura Farris told Andrew Marr that her colleague had stepped down following the emergency legislation announcement.
In a letter of resignation to Mr Sunak, posted to X, Mr Jenrick said the small boats crisis was doing "untold damage" to the country and the Government needed to place "national interests highly contested interpretations of international law".
He said he has had to resign because he has “such strong disagreements with the direction of the Government’s policy on immigration”.
The letter reads: "It is with great sadness that I have written to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as Minister for Immigration."
He said he has been “pushing for the strongest possible piece of emergency legislation to ensure that under the Rwanda policy we remove as many small boat arrivals as swiftly as possible”.
He continued: “Nevertheless, I am unable to take the currently proposed legislation through to the Commons as I do not believe it provides us with the best possible chance of success.
“The stakes for the country are too high for us not to pursue the stronger protections required to end the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme and negating its intended deterrent”.
He added: "I refuse to be yet another politician who makes promises on immigration to the British public but does not keep them."
Home Secretary James Cleverly confirmed to MPs earlier on Wednesday evening that Mr Jenrick had quit.
It is with great sadness that I have written to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as Minister for Immigration.
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) December 6, 2023
I cannot continue in my position when I have such strong disagreements with the direction of the Government’s policy on immigration. pic.twitter.com/Zg3ezFJr8t
Speculation over Mr Jenrick’s resignation started after he was absent from the frontbench as Mr Cleverly gave his statement on the new legislation.
It follows the Prime Minister’s decision not to opt out of the European Convention on Human Rights in order to push the Rwanda policy through.
Mr Jenrick has been open in the past about his preference for a hardline approach to the Rwanda policy after the Supreme Court ruled it unlawful last month.
The new bill will instead allow ministers to “disapply” parts of UK human rights law.
It comes after new emergency legislation on the Rwanda bill was announced on Wednesday evening.
The Home Secretary visited Rwanda on Tuesday as part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's mission to make the deal to send migrants to Rwanda legally watertight following the ruling.
Announcing the new legislation, Mr Cleverly said: “Given the Supreme Court’s judgement we cannot be confident that courts will respect the new treaty on its own.
“So today the government has published emergency legislation to make unambiguously clear that Rwanda is a safe country and to prevent the courts from second-guessing Parliament’s will.
“We will introduce legislation tomorrow... to give effect to the judgement of parliament that Rwanda is a safe country notwithstanding UK law or any interpretation of international law.”
Reacting to the news of Mr Jenrick’s resignation, the Home Secretary said: “I have from this despatch box and a number of other locations said how much I value the work of the immigration minister.
“He has done a huge amount of work on this... And I have said that in a number of areas which have driven down small boat arrivals by a third the work that he has done has been absolutely instrumental.”
“And I have said that in a number of areas which have driven down small boat arrivals by a third the work that he has done has been absolutely instrumental.”
“I have no doubt that the whole of Government will work to make sure this legislation achieves what I think we all should want to achieve, which is to break the business model of people smugglers.”
Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he was “sorry” over the news of Mr Jenrick’s resignation but that the bill is an “incredibly comprehensive set of proposals”.
He told Sky News: “I’m sorry Robert Jenrick has resigned, I think he was a good minister, but the background is we’ve just published an incredibly comprehensive set of proposals that are going to reduce the number of migration to the country.
“We’ve just managed to achieve, which many people thought we wouldn’t, a new treaty with Rwanda, agreed inside a very small number of weeks which many people thought would be impossible.
“We’re going to publish a bill which is going to put this policy beyond doubt.
“Nobody wants lots of people to be flown to Rwanda. As soon as that policy is in place I think the number of people coming across the Channel in boats will radically reduce and that’s the aim.”
