Speeches by Cooper.

“One of the first things that the Foreign Office did after the election, as part of the European political community event, was to announce additional investment. From memory, it was over £80 million. I cannot remember now whether it was £84 million or £92 million, but it was additional funds to work alongside other Eur…”

“We need to increase returns because we need to increase the credibility of the system. If there is no proper sense that the rules are respected, that the rules are enforced, people do not have confidence, in the asylum system or the immigration system. Returns are still significantly lower than they were under the last…”

“We obviously already work with the IOM on some of the voluntary returns arrangements. That has been in place for some time. Interesting, while I was in Italy, one of the meetings I had was with the Italian UNHCR and IOM representatives, just talking about the work that they were doing, including around some of the safe…”

“Yes, that is absolutely part of our work because making it easier for voluntary returns is obviously a much simpler, much more effective way to arrange things. Many of the charter flights that have been organised are charter flights for voluntary returns. That is a lot of what has been taking place.”

“We have had previous returns arrangements with Iraq. When I visited, we agreed to strengthen those returns arrangements. There is a lot more work that we still want to do. The numbers of returns to Iraq have still been relatively low. There is a series of things that we still want to do and we discussed doing them in p…”

“Immediately after the election, we moved up to 1,000 staff into the returns and enforcement work more widely, looking at direct returns. We have had 13,500 returns since the election. That includes 33 charter flights and I think four of the biggest return charter flights that the Home Office has ever operated and a 25%…”

“I think we already have different forms of safe routes, that will always need to be part of the UK system. That is one of the things that we did with the family reunion for Afghanistan and that will always need to be part of the system. All countries will always need to do their bit but I think it is just not an altern…”

“The UK will always need to do its bit alongside other countries to help those who have fled persecution, what we have done with the Ukraine programme, with Hong Kong, with Afghanistan, and so on. We made some changes to the Afghanistan arrangements earlier this year to help reunite family members who had been separated…”

“The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the continuing instability. There is a lot that we simply do not know about how events will play out in Syria. Those who have taken over, and who were involved in the initial overthrow of the Assad regime, initially said they would pursue an approach supporting minoriti…”

“The hon. Member will be aware that we have long had a common travel area across the UK and Ireland, which of course has meant close security co-operation and information-sharing in recognition of that unique situation. That common travel area will continue, and we will also continue to work with the Irish Government to…”

“I think everyone will be clear that no one should be making these dangerous boat crossings that undermine our border security and put lives at risk. We need to pursue the criminal gang networks that spread across Europe and beyond, which is why we welcome last week’s arrests in Germany as a result of the French-led ope…”

“We have been clear that we need to reduce both legal and illegal migration because we have seen significant increases in both over the past five years. That is why we are setting out the policies that we have been introducing since the election. The hon. Gentleman is right to talk about the multiple different aspects a…”

“My hon. Friend asks an important question. The criminal gangs operate across borders and, frankly, they have been able to get away with it because of lack of co-ordination between law enforcement across borders and between Governments across borders. That is what we have been working to change since the election and wh…”

“The right hon. Member will know that the Home Office has the power to deny entry to those who are not conducive to the public good. Those are important powers that we continue to support. He will know that we also have other security powers and measures that we can use where there are individuals who pose a threat to t…”

“My hon. Friend is right that the previous record year was 2022 and that in the first half of this year, when the previous Government were still in office, the arrivals were higher for that season—we all know that arrivals are affected by the season—than they were in 2022. Since the election, those arrivals have been si…”

“We need to clear the backlog and the chaos in the asylum system that we have inherited. There is already a detention system as part of both the immigration and asylum systems. However, the core issue over a long period of time has been around the lack of proper enforcement and a proper system to ensure that the rules i…”

“My hon. Friend is right. We inherited a situation where the Conservatives let the entire system get way out of control. They let criminal gangs take hold along the channel and left us with total chaos in the asylum system and extortionate costs, as she rightly pointed out, with nearly £9 million a day being spent this …”

“The hon. Gentleman raises an important issue. As he will know, we do not routinely comment on either proscription or de-proscription, or on any of those processes, but I make it clear that proscription decisions are taken with care, based on evidence over time. They are not rushed or based on inadequate evidence. These…”

“My hon. Friend is right that this is a practical issue. To disrupt the criminal gangs operating along the French coast, we need to disrupt their supply chains and to be able to go after them wherever they operate. One of the most basic issues, on which the previous Government took no action at all, is the fact these fl…”

“My hon. Friend is right that the only way to deal with this issue is not through gimmicks—we have seen those fail time and again—or through the kind of posturing that the Conservative party continues with. It will be dealt with only through partnership, hard work and graft. We have set up the Border Security Command, p…”