'It's a total farce': Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick hits out after Labour abandons Rwanda plans

6 September 2024, 09:40 | Updated: 6 September 2024, 09:42

Watch Again: Nick Ferrari is joined by Tory MP Robert Jenrick | 06/09/24

By Danielle de Wolfe

Conservative MP Robert Jenrick has labelled Labour's stance on immigration "a total farce” after Germany proposed adopting abandoned Rwanda plans.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

Describing how the current government has "surrendered to the people smuggling gangs", the Tory leadership hopeful told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, pulling no punches when it came to Labour's immigration plans.

“They’re either being dishonest or hopelessly naive,” Mr Jenrick said of Labour's decision to abandon the Tories' Rwanda policy.

“It’s a farce, it’s a total farce,” he added of Labour dropping proposed plans, as Germany seeks to adopt similar measures.

On Thursday, Germany's migration commissioner, Joachim Stamp, said the German Rwanda scheme would focus on migrants coming across the EU's eastern border.

“In order to make that police work, I’ve come to the view we need to leave the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR),” Mr Jenrick insisted, putting immigration at the front of his leadership bid.

"I don’t come at this from an ideological perspective, I come at it from a practical one."

Nick Ferrari asks Robert Jenrick if he was 'radicalised' during his time in the Home Office

His comments come on the day Labour prepared to forge a new path as part of a people smuggling summit chaired by Yvette Cooper.

"We’ve got intelligence services, prosecutorial authorities, NCA and senior cabinet ministers looking at the intelligence looking at how we can step up to stop the tragedies like the one we sadly saw this week where lives were lost," Dame Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum told LBC on Friday.

Mr Jenrick said current plans "aren't enough", adding: "you have to have a deterrent”.

He added there was a need to let illegal immigrants know “they’ll never find a life here in the United Kingdom”.

Read more: Tony Blair believes peace in the Middle East is 'further away' now than when he was in office

Read more: Prisoners could serve sentence in Estonia as Ministry of Justice considers "all options" for overcrowding crisis

Speaking with Nick, the Tory leadership hopeful said historic leaders and former PMs alike would "be aghast" at the state of today's liberal immigration system as a result of the ECHR.

“Winston Churchill, who created that, will be aghast at what it’s become today, because we have foreign nation offenders like murderers and rapists and paedophiles we can’t remove because of that human rights architecture," he said.

"We’ve got terror suspects on our streets, who we can’t survey properly or remove because of it.

"Not able to properly secure our border, in an age where there are millions of people looking to come to developed economies like ours.”

It comes as Labour ministers considered plans to send criminals to serve their sentences in Estonian prisons in an effort to combat the overcrowding crisis in British jails on Friday.

Sending offenders to the Baltic state is under consideration as one of many options to address the capacity problem faced by British prisons- where just over 1,000 spaces are thought to be left in England and Wales.

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Donald Trump has been accused of 'appeasement'

Ukraine’s future at stake as world leaders gather in Munich - with Trump accused of ‘appeasing’ Putin

Una Crown

Bloody fingernails of murdered widow, 86, help convict killer 12 years after she was stabbed and set on fire at home

President Donald Trump

Donald Trump says he trusts Putin and that Russia should return to G7 - labelling Moscow's expulsion 'a mistake'

Kanye West, left, and Bianca Censori arrive at the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Kanye West and Bianca Censori 'split' days after Grammys scandal - as rapper releases bizarre message

Near-Earth asteroid, artwork

NASA scientist reveals list of countries that face being hit by huge 'city killer' asteroid the size of Big Ben

'Uncle Sam isn't Uncle Sucker,' US tells Nato - as Ukraine admits it 'won't accept' US-Russia deal without seat at table

'Uncle Sam isn't Uncle Sucker,' US tells Nato - as Zelenskyy says Trump-Putin deal to end war 'must involve Ukraine'

This illustrative image shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and United States President Donald Trump (right).

Donald Trump is 'setting preconditions for withdrawing from NATO', his former advisor tells LBC

Semina Halliwell

Girl, 12, who died of overdose after reporting being raped was 'betrayed' by authorities, mother claims

Farishta Jami, 36, pictured, pledged allegiance to Islamic State and had a 'clear interest in the use of children in warfare'

British mother, 36, who tried to move family to Afghanistan to become ISIS martyrs found guilty of terror offences

Jaysley Beck, 19, was found dead at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire

Soldier, 19, 'pinned down' by sergeant 'lost faith' after his only punishment was writing apology letter

Michael Steele, who was jailed for life in 1998 for the killings of Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe, can be released from prison, the Parole Board has said.

'Essex Boys' killer Michael Steele to be released from prison 27 years after triple gangland murders

Ukraine 'won't accept any agreements' between Trump and Putin to end war without being involved, says Zelenskyy

Ukraine 'won't accept any agreements' between Trump and Putin to end war without being involved, says Zelenskyy

Naya Rivera

Glee star Naya Rivera's heartbreaking final words to her son before she drowned revealed

Kanye West

There can be no debate about Kanye West - he clearly hates Jewish people and should be challenged on it

The young man was swallowed by a whale

Shocking moment whale swallows kayaker whole before spitting him back out

Deise Moura has been arrested on suspicion of killing her relatives with a poisonous Christmas cake

Woman accused of murder after 'Christmas cake poisoning' that killed three is found dead in prison cell