Will the government’s “stop the boats” plan work?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Illegal Migration Bill is the latest government attempt to deter asylum seekers from making their way to the UK by irregular routes. But has Rishi Sunak come up with some substance to match his ‘stop the boats’ slogan? How does the government intend its plan to work – and how likely is it to succeed? Will the legislation prove popular or polarising? And is the row about Gary Lineker and Match of the Day no more than a distraction? The IfG’s Emma Norris and Rhys Clyne are joined by Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, and Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, for a deep dive into the government’s asylum plan. Presented by Emma Norris. Produced by Candice McKenzie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this special edition of Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.8	I'm Emma Norris, the deputy director of the Institute. So last week, Swarthe and Rishi Sunak unveiled the government's
0:20.4	latest plans to make
0:21.5	good on the Prime Minister's pledge to stop the boats in the form of new asylum legislation,
0:26.4	the illegal immigration bill. And as we record, the bill is having its second reading later today
0:31.0	in the Commons. We've decided to take a deep dive into the legislation. What does it propose?
0:35.5	What is it trying to achieve? How does it differ from
0:38.1	existing legislation? And perhaps most importantly, does it have any chance of working? To cover all of that
0:43.7	and more, I'm joined by IFG's senior researcher Reese Klein, who leads our home office watching activities.
0:49.2	Hi, Rhys. Hi, Emma. I'm delighted to be joined by Madeline Sumpion, director of the migration
0:53.7	observatory. Hi, Madeline.
0:55.6	Hello. Thanks for coming. And by Sandra Kowala, Director of British Future, which is a non-partisan think tank that works on integration, immigration, identity and race. Hi, Sender. Thanks for joining us.
1:07.0	Hi, thanks. I know it's a really busy time for both of you, so very pleased that you could be with us today.
1:12.5	Okay, before we start diving into the detail of the bill, let's start with the political context.
1:17.1	Madeline, why has the government introduced this bill? What problem is it trying to fix?
1:21.4	Well, the basic context of this is that the number of people who've been trying to cross the,
1:26.7	well, who've successfully crossed the
1:28.6	channel in small boats over the last few years has risen quite substantially. A few years ago,
1:34.0	this just wasn't a thing. It was incredibly rare if it happened at all. And by last year, by
1:41.4	2022, there were just over 45,000 people who crossed in a small boat across
1:48.4	the channel. And most of those people claimed asylum. And so I think the most immediate cause is that
1:54.4	the government feels that it's under pressure to address the issue. It is an issue, as I'm sure we'll
	...

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