‘He was saying something completely different behind closed doors and not being honest with the public.’
While he was prime minister, Boris Johnson repeatedly claimed that once Britain left the EU, the country would be able to “take back control” of its borders.
However, it has emerged that the Conservative government knew it was just empty populist rhetoric, and would have the opposite effect.
A leaked Sky News recording shows Chris Philp admitting ministers knew before Brexit would limit their ability to return asylum seekers.
During a call with the shadow cabinet on 28 April, Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “Now because we’re out of the European Union now we are out of the Dublin III regulations and so we can’t any longer rely on sending people back to the place where they first claimed asylum.
“When we did check it out just before we exited the EU transitional arrangements on December 31 2020, we did run some checks and found that about half the people crossing the channel had claimed asylum previously elsewhere in Europe.
“In Germany, France, Italy, Spain, somewhere like that, and therefore could have been returned.”
“But now we’re out of Dublin, we can’t do that, and that’s why we need to have somewhere like Rwanda that we can send these people to as a deterrent.”
The Rwanda scheme, which cost over £700 million and did not result in any deportations, was not announced until April 2022.
Back in August 2020, Philp said something very different, claiming that leaving Dublin III would make it easier to return asylum seekers.
He said: “The Dublin regulations do have a number of constraints in them, which makes returning people who should be returned a little bit harder than we would like.
“Of course, come the 1st of January, we’ll be outside of those Dublin regulations and the United Kingdom can take a fresh approach.”
Responding to the leaked clip, Labour MP Mike Tapp said: “This demonstrates here that Chris Philp, who was the immigration minister at the time, was saying something completely different behind closed doors and not being honest with the public.”
He added: “I think it’s time for an apology.”
In a post on X, Labour peer and columnist for Left Foot Forward, Prem Sikka said: “This wasn’t on the side of the red bus.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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