Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick claims terror suspects 'waltz in on small boats'
22 September 2024, 10:32
Terror suspects 'waltz in on small boats', Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has claimed.
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Dozens of terror suspects have crossed the Channel in small boats, according to the former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
The Tory leadership candidate said individuals associated with the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda were among those who had arrived and said they were refugees, The Telegraph reports.
His comments indicate the first time such information has been publicly revealed and follow Sir Keir Starmer ditching the Rwanda plan, which would have seen small boat arrivals sent to the African nation.
In addition, Mr Jenrick said at least 1,000 people who arrived on small boats up until the end of 2022, when he was immigration minister, were "connected to criminality of all kinds".
In an article for The Telegraph, he warned that axing the Rwanda deportation scheme would make Britain more vulnerable to terrorist attacks in future.
He wrote: “In the year before I was immigration minister, more than a dozen known terror suspects crossed the Channel on small boats.
"By now, that figure is well into the dozens.
“These are people our security services identified as known quantities, threats to our communities, with links to Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.
"And they waltzed right in."
Government sources disregarded his claims and called the Rwanda plan a "hopeless gimmick".
But Mr Jenrick could access sensitive security information when he was a senior minister in the Home Office and said his time in charge of the immigration policy made him realise the state was not doing "everything we can to protect our people".
As well as dozens of terror suspects, he said nearly 1,000 migrants who arrived in small boats in 2022 and 2023 were linked to criminality.
He wrote: “They all go on to watchlists of varying levels. But how can we expect our police officers and security services, already dealing with threats from home, to take on dozens or hundreds more cases?
“It’s an impossible task. And while they do a fantastic job, it’s inevitable some will slip through the net.”
Mr Jenrick was immigration minister in Rishi Sunak's cabinet between October 2022 and December last year, but resigned having concluded that legislation suggested by the then prime minister to rescue the Rwanda plan from legal challenges did not "go far enough".
Now, he has emerged as a front-runner to be elected as the next Conservative leader, having topped the first two ballots of MPs.
He said his time in the Home Office exposed him to the "dark truth" that illegal migration was putting Britain's security at risk.
“I saw the British state powerless as people it knew to be terrorists broke into the country, and then fail to remove them because of our current legal regime,” he wrote.
“Upon grappling with these cases, it was obvious to me it would be unconscionable to not do absolutely everything we could to stop illegal migrants breaking into our country.“
"Arguments that the views of activist foreign judges and liberal elites were more important than fixing this problem made my blood boil.”
When Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the Rwanda plan, Mr Jenrick referred to the decision as the "height of irresponsibility" and said it would "endanger lives".
He wrote: “It was a cheap political scoring point, unevidenced, and designed to give succour to his friends on the Left.
“I won’t sugar-coat the consequences of this. And I won’t apologise for putting it starkly. It means our country is not just more likely to suffer from out-of-control illegal migration for longer, but that we are more likely to be the victim of extremist or even terrorist attacks.
“The security services know it, the key border force officials know it, and anyone who has seen inside of the system knows it.”
A Government source dismissed Mr Jenrick’s criticism.
The source said: “The Tories spent two years and £700 million and managed to send four volunteers to Rwanda. The idea that it was a deterrent is laughable.
“Since taking office, a Labour Government has boosted our border security and seen crossings go down this summer by 20 per cent.
"It’s time for Jenrick and his friends to stop hiding behind hopeless gimmicks and start admitting his Party’s failure has undermined our border security.”
The Home Office was approached for comment.
