Speeches by Murray.

“I completely agree with the hon. Lady. It is not just in the UK that people are recognising that Israel is crossing multiple lines; it is across the world, so we must act. As others have said, countries such as Ireland and Spain are taking the decision to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements. We must too, and now…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) for securing today’s debate, and thank Members from all parties for the powerful speeches we have heard. There is clearly cross-party support for the proposition we are debating. I recognise the work that the Government have done, supporting the …”

“What does “actively considering” mean? Is there anything active about it? Can the Minister refer to meetings, instructions or deadlines that would manifest as active consideration?”

“The best solution to managing those challenges this summer is sustained engagement with the French, at leader level, Cabinet level, ministerial level, and working official level, so that the police aux frontières have a delegated responsibility to let flows through. What discussion will we be having at every level with…”

“Last week I visited the port of Dover with the Home Affairs Committee, to see those operations in action. Given that this is an EU entry-exit system, we must face the fact that this is an inevitable consequence of Brexit, and we have to make it work. The best solution to the challenges facing our constituents this summ…”

“Okay, so it is EU nationals that are the challenge?”

“Thank you, I just wanted to make sure I had understood the clarification.”

“What does intelligence-led checks mean? What is the difference between intelligence-led checks for non-EU nationals and those for EU nationals?”

“Yes.”

“In many ways, the common travel area feels a unique part of the UK-Ireland set-up, but when you think about it, it is very similar to the Schengen area in Europe, where countries share their border controls and intelligence. I am trying to get my head around the challenges you face. Picking up on Mr Robinson’s point, a…”

“That is not my question. My question is not whether they are checked within the common travel area; my question is will any non-EU national entering the common travel area, whether by plane or ferry, be checked by either an Irish or British border official?”

“So anyone within the common travel area, unless they entered irregularly, has been checked?”

“Their exit from the European Union would not be checked, but if they re-entered, they would still be checked. I wanted to make that clear because I want to ask what the challenges are for enforcement bodies in relation to the common travel area and the land border, particularly in relation to the land border. Obviously…”

“Have they been checked coming into the common travel area already?”

“At the point of moving into the common travel area.”

“To go back to my earlier point—apologies if this is confusing—non-EU nationals are all checked when they enter the common travel area and EU nationals are not, but what you are saying to me is that it does not actually make that big a difference that non-EU nationals are checked and EU nationals are not checked when th…”

“Any non-EU national in the common travel area, who has travelled by a regular route has been checked.”

“Thank you. I get that, but what I am trying to drive at is whether an intelligence-led model of that will differ if those organised crime groups, or the people who you are trying to target, are from an EU background or a non-EU background, or a non-British background.”

“I want to pick up the point about Mears before I move on to another question. You said that Mears holds the contract for the whole of Northern Ireland. What is the total cost of that contract, both in total and per asylum seeker per year? To follow that up, is community cohesion a KPI that Mears is held to account for …”

“But the taxpayer does contract Mears to do this, to the tune of billions of pounds, so could you undertake to write to the Committee with those four specific answers? I am happy to remind you what the questions were later on, if that is helpful. I want to move on to try to understand how the common travel area fits int…”