‘Britain has had enough’: Piddington's asylum revolt must be a wake-up call for Labour, writes James Hanson

The sleepy Oxfordshire village has voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence from the UK in a protest against plans to house more than 1,200 male asylum seekers at a nearby former military base.

The result may be purely symbolic, but with their unequivocal rejection of the government’s disastrous asylum policies, the villagers have spoken for an entire nation. The vast majority of Brits have simply run out of patience. When even middle-class voters in a Liberal Democrat constituency are in revolt, you know things are bad.

It is now down to the government to do whatever it takes to stop the small boats crisis. If that means leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, so be it. If that means reviving the Rwanda scheme, fine. And if it means using the Royal Navy to intercept and turn back the mega dinghies increasingly being used in the English Channel, then go for it.

This is not because the British people lack compassion for those in genuine need, and we should do more to provide safe and legal asylum routes. But ordinary voters are fed up with being treated like mugs. We can see with our own eyes that the vast majority of small boat migrants are young men. We’ve read enough horror stories about undocumented migrants committing heinous crimes while their asylum claims are being processed. And we can also see that they are not fleeing a war zone; they are fleeing France - which, last time I checked, was a perfectly safe country.

“But they probably speak better English than French” or “they’ll have family already in the UK”, cry the ‘refugees welcome’ brigade. Both may well be true. But if they’re so desperate to resettle here they should apply for a visa like any other economic migrant. By travelling here via small boat, they are not only putting money in the pockets of despicable people-smuggling gangs, but they are also undermining Britain’s border security by sticking two fingers up to the country whose hospitality they seek.

We need to draw a line in the sand and set a simple precedent. Anyone who boards a small boat and attempts to cross the English Channel will immediately invalidate their asylum claim. We shouldn’t even bother processing them, thus negating the need for housing in either Piddington or elsewhere. We should either send them straight back to their home country, or - if a returns agreement isn’t in place - deport them to a safe third country, like Rwanda.

The only way to destroy the demand for small boat crossings is to make it clear that such journeys are futile. You only have to look at the success of Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders to see how it can work. It is time to stop tinkering at the edges with pointless vanity projects like the government’s ‘one in, one out’ arrangement with France. Ministers should be much bolder. The verdict of the people of Piddington should be a wake-up call for Labour. Britain has had enough of asylum chaos. It is time to get a grip.

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Listen to James Hanson on LBC on weekends between 4 and 7am.

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