Restoring safety, order and fairness to our asylum system

Today, we are announcing a new policy to restore safety, order and fairness to our asylum system, and to take on the divisive rhetoric that is tearing our communities and our country apart.

For years now, Reform and the Conservatives have been lying to the British public. We have seen their politicians visit coastal Britain and northern France to point at the mess that they created. Before the referendum, there were no small boat crossings. Since Brexit, over 200,000 people have made that crossing.

The reality is that their botched Brexit deal and mismanagement of our asylum system has caused an unprecedented crisis. Having left the EU, Britain lost access to shared biometric data and any way to return people to the safe countries they passed through before reaching our shores. This has become a well-documented incentive, driving up the numbers of those willing to risk their life crossing the channel. Today, we hold the Conservatives and Reform accountable, and we take the fight to Farage.

That's why we are calling for the UK to enter the EU's landmark new Migration and Asylum Pact. For over a decade, the EU has been working on a new approach to restore order. If the UK were to join, we would be able to:

• Do our bit as part of a Europe-wide effort to look after refugees and asylum seekers
• Return asylum seekers arriving by small boat to the first EU country they entered.
• Access all asylum seekers' biometric data to see who they are and whether they have already been denied asylum elsewhere.

This is the solution we need to stop the flow of small boats and implement an asylum system that is fair and effective for all.

The current system works for no one. The most vulnerable are left to be preyed on by criminal gangs who cram them into dangerous dinghies. Our communities watch the chaos unfold and lose faith in the system. And taxpayers foot a bill running into billions each year.

Liberal Democrats are proud of the role Britain has historically played in welcoming those most in need to find sanctuary in our borders. As we did during the Second World War for Jews forced to flee Nazi Germany. As we did just recently when Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine. That must continue, but via safe routes as part of international agreements, not dangerous small boat crossings.

We can be humane, orderly and cost-effective. Fair to refugees. Fair to communities. Fair to taxpayers. That is what joining this pact delivers. Not the divisive and destructive rhetoric of Reform and the Conservatives, which has so far cost British taxpayers billions and delivered no solutions.