Richard Madeley Grills Yvette Cooper on Labours Plan to Scrap the Rwanda Bill

the Prime Minister was up brighten early this morning uh saying that his focus is now to get flights off the ground and that nothing will stand in his way after the government's rander Bill finally passed Parliament after two years very late last night labor Brands the plan a gimmick says it is unworkable and we're joined by the shadow Home Secretary IET Cooper very good morning to you IET Cooper good morning good morning Rich morning when I interviewed your colleague Jonathan Ashworth back in January I asked asked whether uh you would scrap the plan if you became the next party of government um he spent the best part of about five minutes failing to satisfactorily explain whether you would or not couldn't give a clear answer insisted it's not going to work can you give us a clear answer we will replace it the Rwanda scheme is an extortionately expensive gimmick and it's not a serious plan to tackle the dangerous Boat Crossings that are uh both putting lives at risk but undermining our border security so that's why we'll replace it the scheme's costing the tax pay around half a billion pounds for just 300 Asylum Seekers to be sent to Rwanda that is less than 1% of Asylum Seekers there's no plan for the 99% and it's effectively around2 million per person being spent that money should be being spent on boosting our border security on proper crossboard policing and also on fixing the chaos in the Asylum system instead okay so you won't even let it have a chance to work then well the problem is that nobody thinks it's going to work the Home Secretary himself has described until it's in sorry we can't use that word on television sorry um but we don't know yet do we we have we've been discussing it for two years everybody's pointed out the flaws with it the courts have had an issue with it it's finally gone through is it not incumbent on you as the shadow Home Secretary as somebody who might want to save some money to work out if it does work before you pledge to replace it well I think there's there's two things that first of all nobody does think it'll work not just the current Home Secretary the former home secretary has also said this is just token flights the former immigration Minister has said they're just trying to do symbolic flights before general election in fact even the Prime Minister has said that you know when he was Chancellor tried to stop the scheme it's also because this is just about 300 people more people than that arrive in a weekend and so this is really not addressing the whole of the problem and it's costing huge amounts of money upfront so the first thing that the government is going to do having passed the bill is not all of the things that were in the papers about sending out letters or sorting out detention or any of those things the first thing they're going to do is write A50 million additional check to Rwanda for nothing not for anybody actually arriving and that will take the money up to nearly 300 million already sent to Rwanda for a scheme that so far has sent more home secretaries than Asylum Seekers to Rwanda and that's the problem we should be saving that money and putting that now into boosting our border security sorry Richard no I'm sorry to interrupt you you talk about lack of support and you make quotations there but we know that this policy has quite widespread support in the public with the voters including quite a few labor voters uh you've said this morning you'll rip it up uh you won't give it a chance to work are you not worried about alienating some core labor support well I think what people across the country want is to see something done about these Boat Crossings that are undermining our border security that's precisely my point they will they will see it as something being done and many of them think it's a good idea well and an awful lot of people also think actually this is just a con it's just a gimmick and it's distracting everybody from the real serious action that we need so we do need action to boost our border security people who don't think it's a con and don't think it's a gimmick and otherwise would vote labor who I mean we've got messages from them this morning saying that they're labor supporters and if you if you do rip up this plan they won't vote for you I think there are a lot of Labor supporters who want strong action on border security and who want strong action to fix the chaos in the Asylum system but we do have a responsibility to make sure that we can come up with a workable plan that will make a difference and that doesn't just throw away taxpayers money in repeated checks to Rwanda to the Rwandan government for something that ends up just affecting 1% of Asylum Seekers when there's no plan for the 99% and then you've got these huge problems with Asylum hotels you've got the huge problem with the criminal gangs just continuing to operate with impunity along the channel That is dangerous that is undermining our border security so the things that we would do yeah yes I was going to say because you say that you not going to give it a chance to work uh you would rip it up immediately but you're going to replace it I mean there's a huge amount of money that's already been invested so that's just written off by a potential labor government and already written off where they've done it they the conservatives have written that money off because it's not B us anything and and so what are you going to spend money on instead so we would save money we wouldn't be writing these additional checks to Rwanda now and remember every time they send as soon as they send 300 people they will have to write another check for 120 million so that money we would put into border security first of all uh new crossborder police to work actually in Europe to go after the criminal gangs and their networks and Supply chains so that we stop the boats reaching the French Coast in the first place so that you have the proper cooperation to go after these networks which have expanded and grown and proliferated over the last five years we would have new counterterror style powers to help them go after the gangs we would also have new intelligence sharing agreements that again have been ripped up in recent years we need to actually make sure that we can get that we would also have a FastTrack scheme for safe countries to help clear the backlog end Asylum Hotel use and crucially we would have a new returns and enforcement unit because the returns of failed Asylum cases have just plummeted they dropped by 50 % since the conservatives came to power if you don't have tough enforcement if you don't have the rules properly enforced then there's no credibility for the whole system we've got to restore that credibility and that enforcement in place only two or three minutes left for this interview so let's turn to the predicament that your Deputy leader Angela Raina is currently in um by a quirk of of common procedure tomorrow she will be doing pmqs um and we just wonder how prepared she is for the inevitable attack she's going to get for this ongoing rout about her two homes are you confident that she'll see off the Flack because it's going to be heavy in coming Flack tomorrow yeah I think Angela is a brilliant Deputy leader of the labor party um she's a fantastic campaigner she's working immensely hard on all sorts of issues including making sure that there are proper rights and protections for working people who haven't had a fair deal um and uh look Angela you welcomes the opportunity from the investigations to be able to set the records straight and to be able to deal with with those issues but in terms of her work in Parliament she is going to carry on doing the things that she's always done which is holding a failing government to account because it is badly failing the people of this country and I think tomorrow will be about the people of this country not the kinds of attacks from the conservatives we've seen well herosama um he's not doing pmqs tomorrow so that would give him a chance to look at the evidence which she says that she has presented and that uh other people within the labor parties say they've looked at but nobody will say what they've actually seen and K starma hasn't hasn't looked at it himself why won't Your Leader look at the evidence that she says clears her name why would he just look at it well this is a matter with the police you've got the hmrc through the proper authorities I mean the thing Andrew has t done exactly the right thing by taking proper legal and tax advice and been really clear that she's acted she's acted in accordance with it he's a former um boss the DPP is he not curious himself as leader to have a look at it so he can then say with complete Authority yeah I've seen the paperwork it's fine she's in the clear but I think that's a matter for the police and the hmrc and as Angela's been really clear that she has acted in accordance with the advice not a matter for the leader of the labor party I think this is for him this is something that happened what 10 years ago before Angela was an MP around the sale of her Council house and Angela has been very clear both about following the advice that she's received and also welcoming the opportunity for the proper authorities Poli the hmrc is he frightened to look at it because of what he might see because that's that's the message that's coming over no Richard I think what K st's doing is focusing today on tackling rural crime which is going up much faster urban areas no but it is also about saying this is what K is focusing on so Kier and I are going to be uh talking today about rural crime that was actually one of the reasons I was doing interviews this morning was to also be able to talk about our plans to cut rural rural crime by having more neighborhood Patrols in rural areas and to be able to have stronger laws have you seen the have you seen the have you seen the paperwork have you seen the paperwork but have you seen the paperwork no I said no you have you haven't and I wouldn't expect to because I think that's about the advice to someone about their personal finances and we don't just routinely publish personal finance information in this country and it is right that there should be proper authori it I was suggesting that you look at it I wasn't suggesting you publish it although that is another argument I was simply suggesting that maybe you somebody quite senior let's say the labor party leader should have a look at it and it look it it seems improbable the reasons that you're giving oh well it's a matter for the police it's a matter for hmrc it's also a matter for the leader of the labor part if it's a if it's a problem for the deputy leader and Her Image it's a problem for the leader and his yeah but I think I just say this Richard I don't go go around looking at the tax and legal advice that my colleagues have and I don't think you do either I think I understand why the conservatives want to focus on this there is an investigation underway and Angie welcomes that but I understand why the conservatives want to focus on that I think most people across the country actually want to know what's the difference going to be for their cost of living what's the difference going to be made on our border security what's the difference going to be made about the National Health Service those are the issues let's leave it to the hmrc to the police let's leave it to Ang to be able to do the things that she's been very clear she welcomes the chance to be able to do and lets the rest of us talk about the things that really matter to people across the country who are still struggling to pay their energy bills or their mortgages who are still worrying about not being able to get an NHS appointment and not worrying too about our border security that we were talking about at the beginning if we were interviewing you from your office this morning I Cooper would you be flying the St George's flag with enthusiasm it is St George's day and your leader has written to all general election candidates urging you to Market with enthusiasm we have you in our studio there at Milbank this morning where there are no Flags would it be different in your constituency office so San I can wish you a very happy St George's day in pontif frct we very often fly the St George's flag from pontif Frank Castle I hope it is flly flying there today as you say we're in Parliament today and actually in our area we have very often put up the St George's flags and the Bunting and yesterday actually we were at St George's Park seeing where the England team train as well so I can very happily and very enthusiastically wish you and everybody else watching a happy St George's day today no flinching at the St George's flag where you are we've had no no totally we've often had the bunting up and and things as well all right let the flags fly thank thank you very much indeed for your time Cooper thanks very much indeed

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 24,344

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, yvette cooper, richard madeley, news live, news today, rishi sunak, rwanda, rwanda updates, rwanda bill, rwanda bill uk, rwanda bill vote, rwanda bill passed, rwanda bill live, labour party

Id: PwPcloXWLmY

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024