Emily Thornberry diminishes PM's new migration plan to 'a lot of rhetoric'
14 December 2022, 11:02
Emily Thornberry scrutinises PM's five-point plan
Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry, scrutinised Rishi Sunak's new plan to tackle immigration, claiming it "starts to fall to pieces" when questioned.
On Tuesday, Rishi Sunak unveiled a five-point plan to tackle illegal immigration as he promised to clear the backlog of 117,000 outstanding asylum claims by the end of next year.
During Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on LBC Emily Thornberry was asked for her reaction to the plan, to which the Shadow Attorney General responded: "I'm afraid I think it's quite a lot of rhetoric."
She continued: "If you look at any of the things that he’s saying and you go ‘well that sounds good and how’s that going to work’, then it starts to fall to pieces and that’s the problem."
Referring to the Prime Minister's promise to clear the backlog of cases, the Labour MP tore apart the Prime Minister's logic, criticising the idea that whilst his plan to double the amount of decision makers won't "be enough", taking a year to eliminate the backlog will create an "18 months backlog anyway".
"These things don’t make sense", she concluded.
The Prime Minister announced the creation of a 'small boats' command centre, more raids, and plans to slash the £5.5m daily bill currently being spent on hotels for migrants.
He also confirmed steps to stop people arriving from Albania, with a new unit of 400 specialists set up to handle claims from Albanians.
