Speeches by Mahmood.

“This Government pledged to restore order and control to our borders, and our work is taking effect. Since we took office, removals of illegal migrants are up 31%, to nearly 60,000, forced returns are up 45%, and deportations of foreign criminals are up by a third. In December we imposed visa sanctions on three countrie…”

“I am very pleased that the hon. Member raises that issue, and I am happy to look at the detail of what he has seen in his constituency. Let me assure him that there is a lot of work happening with retailers, and I know that different platforms are being adopted. The pace of technological innovation in this area is very…”

“We are investing a record £140 million in state-of-the-art technology to make our communities safer, including the roll-out of the live facial recognition technology that is already transforming policing. Investing in technology means more time for the police to be where we want them, which is out on the streets fighti…”

“I gently say to the right hon. Gentleman that I am always willing to listen to advice, wherever it may come from, but I point out that in 14 years under his party in government, we did not see any such action. It is very easy to say from the sidelines, “Just deport everybody.” If it was so easy to derogate from interna…”

“I would not say it is deterrence. There is a particular issue where we have seen migration into the country on a very large scale—much more than was expected—and of a very different nature to what we have had before, both in terms of the skills range and the number of dependants. Something like 50% of the care work num…”

“No, I disagree. If you look at our paper on the new proposals for settlement, the intention is to restore the element of contribution at the heart of the system. I think that our country is full of very tolerant and generous people—we are very open—but I think there is a condition to that, which is about contribution. …”

“I would dispute that net migration is at very low levels. It is still really quite high. It has had a big drop from the very large increases that you saw under the previous Administration, but it is still comfortably over 200,000, which is still quite high on any measure. When I first came into Parliament, back in the …”

“We have already announced that we want to go from a baseline five-year qualifying period to 10 years, which we are not consulting on. We have a relatively generous welfare state. Five years is actually quite a short period before people can be permanently settled in the country, with all the benefits that brings. It is…”

“You are only bringing in workers to benefit your economy, right? Of course you would want to look at earnings in that context; I do not think there is anything wrong with that. Successive Governments have made the argument for wanting this country to be able to attract the brightest and the best. It would be odd if we …”

“I think a lot of evidence has been given to the Committee about various email exchanges and conversations that took place. I do not believe that much will be added to that but, of course, if it can be, I will make sure it is.”

“I am sure that my officials are watching and will be able to respond. But evidence on this exact point has been given before to your Committee by the director general who was responsible for this.”

“Look, I can write back to the Committee. I don’t believe the evidence is going to go further than what you have already heard directly from—”

“Evidence has already been given to the Committee about what was said in front of me on 8 October—”

“The reforms for settlement are precipitated by the issues in relation to the scale and pace of recent migration into the country. Between 2021 and 2024, net migration stood at 2.6 million people, which means that around one in every 30 people in this country today arrived in those four years. We have seen particular is…”

“As late as 15 October, it was still said to Home Office officials that all options were on the table.”

“That is not what was said to me.”

“It is my understanding that even on 15 October, in an email exchange, it was still believed that all options were on the table. I think my officials were trying to get information all the way through about what was going on. The possibility was raised on 8 October, and there is the email exchange about all options—”

“We obviously want to be able to ultimately break this business model. We are interested in all and any mechanisms that we have at our disposal to do that. It requires co-operation with international partners. We are in the middle of a negotiation at the moment, and I will not—”

“I am not, as you will know, able to see the papers of the previous Government, so, being in the building now, it is difficult for me to see exactly what was happening under the previous Administration. I would say that the publicly available numbers showed a big increase. As a constituency Member of Parliament, I was s…”

“It is inconceivable that they wouldn’t have been aware at all. Obviously, it would be for them to explain what exactly they knew and when, but even if you just go by the information that was publicly available, in which you could see the big growths in net migration, I think it became very clear very quickly that there…”