Tory MP blames Home Office for small boat crisis

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Failures at the Home Office are behind the small boat crisis, says a senior Tory MP.

Sir Bob Neill criticized Suella Braverman's planned immigration reforms for focusing too much on the law rather than tackling the asylum backlog.

People crossing the Channel don't spend enough quickly through the court system due to a lack of resources, the chairman of the Justice Select Committee suggested.

The Illegal Migration Bill would change the law so that people who are at risk of leaving France are detained and then quickly deported, either to their country of origin or to a safe third country such as Rwanda.

The plan to send migrants to this East African country Is - a policy deemed legal by High Court judges - has so far been blocked by legal action and no flights have taken off.

Home Office not efficient

Sir Bob Neill Tory MP

Asked GB News if the reforms in the Bill would work, Sir Bob said: 'I'm not convinced they will. Much of the focus has been on changing the law and on legislative solutions.

"I don't think that's the problem. The real problem is that the system doesn't work not efficiently enough. We're not getting a system where people who come in, potentially illegally, are turned away fast enough through the immigration court and the asylum system.

"Administrative failures of the Interior Ministry are to blame. This has happened under successive home secretaries for years. The Home Office is not efficient. Changing the legal tests won't matter if you don't have enough people to do the investigations. I would put more resources into that.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman speaking in the House of Commons

(PA Wire)< /figure>

MPs backed the Home Secretary's Bill by 289 votes to 230 in the House of Commons last week.

Although the legislation was approved by the lower house, it will face a tough test in the Lords when it comes under further scrutiny.

Critics of the legislation have dismissed it as unworkable, while MPs right-wing conservatives believe...