By 298 votes to 231, MPs vote through the most significant overhaul of asylum system in decades
The Nationality and Borders Bill has today passed its third and final reading in the House of Commons. 298 MPs voted for the Bill while 231 voted against it.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe Bill now goes to the House of Lords. The Lords will debate the Bill at its second reading stage on 5 January 2022.
Home Secretary Priti Patel told the Commons today that the Bill introduces the most significant overhaul of the asylum system in over two decades.
"Our Bill will bring in a new, comprehensive, fair but firm long-term plan that seeks to address the challenge of illegal migration head on. Illegal immigration is facilitated by serious organised criminals exploiting people and profiting from human misery," Patel said. She added that the Bill will bring in tough new sentences for people smugglers and facilitators.
The Home Secretary also highlighted some of the legal changes being made, noting: "We are establishing a fast-track appeal process and streamlining the appeal system, making it quicker to remove failed asylum seekers and dangerous foreign criminals. … We will tackle the practice of meritless last-minute claims and appeals that clog up the courts, which is a fundamental unfairness that, by the way, even the legal profession says has been frustrating it for too long because the justice system has been gamed."
Speaking for the opposition, Yvette Cooper, the new Shadow Home Secretary, warned that the Bill does not provide real solutions and will only make things worse.
Cooper said: "In November, 27 people died in the cold English Channel. We need solutions and co-operation to try to tackle the smuggler gangs who are making a profit from people losing their lives. We need the safe and legal routes that the Home Secretary has promised and not delivered. The Afghan soldier who worked with our armed forces and arrived by boat with his family just a few weeks ago to claim asylum should never have ended up in a dinghy on the channel. The security co-operation just is not happening. The Home Secretary has failed to go to the heart of the criminal gangs' business model, which is all around social media, and she has failed to back the measures that we proposed yesterday."
The Bill has attracted much criticism (see, in particular, the UNHCR's observations on it here), including plenty today from opposition MPs. The Green Party's Caroline Lucas called the Bill vile, inhumane and draconian. Labour's former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the Bill will cause immense human suffering to some of the most vulnerable people in society and called its passing "shameful". The SNP's Alison Thewliss said the Bill is an appalling, vindictive and dangerous piece of legislation. The Liberal Democrats said the "Anti-Refugee Bill" undermines the UK's proud tradition of providing sanctuary for people forced to flee their homes because of war or persecution.
The amended version of the Bill, as passed by the Commons, is available here.
Labour peer Lord Dubs said in October that he hoped the Bill will be defeated in the Lords.
A bill must be passed by both the Commons and the Lords before it receives Royal Assent and becomes law.