This evening I will be voting against the Tories’ shameful Nationality and Border’s Bill. The bill betrays the UK’s long tradition of welcoming and providing a safe haven to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Globally, 82.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes and are currently displaced. In this face of this unprecedented refugee crisis, this Tory Government has decided to cut international aid, to close down safe routes for refugees to travel to the UK including the Dubs scheme, and place asylum seekers in appalling, illegal conditions in Napier and Penally Barracks.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has taken the unprecedented step of saying that this Bill ‘…will undermine the 1951 Refugee Convention and international protection system, not only in the UK but globally’.  In this afternoon’s debate, I urged the Minister to withdraw this damaging bill and instead look at ways to support communities to resettle refugees in their area and to reopen safe routes like the Dubs Scheme. You can watch my speech here>>