00:00Good to see you, Mr. Philp. Can I start by asking you about Labour's plans to bring down
00:05legal migration? They're hoping to close this loophole about people who are here on graduate
00:11visas who then transfer over to health and social care visas in order to stay in this
00:17country. Is that something that you welcome? Yes, I do welcome attempts to get migration
00:25down. The figures have been far, far too high for a number of years. But of course, we
00:31Conservatives in government, towards the end of our time, announced some measures that have already
00:36got legal migration down a lot. For example, increasing all the salary thresholds and saying
00:42that students and people working in the social care sector cannot bring family members over
00:49with them. There was actually a further measure which we announced to raise the salary threshold
00:55to bring over a family member even further, up to £38,000. But Labour have suspended that move.
01:03That was actually due to come into force on the 1st of April, so about three or four weeks ago.
01:08But Labour have suspended it. I think Labour made a terrible mistake by doing that. I think if people
01:13are going to, if immigrants are going to bring family members over, that should only happen in
01:18limited circumstances where they can afford to look after those family members. And I think you do need
01:23to earn £38,000. To be certain that can happen. So Labour made a massive mistake by suspending that
01:30move. I think if they're serious about reducing immigration, they should adopt that Conservative
01:35measure. We've also tabled amendments to various bills in Parliament recently, for example, to have a
01:42binding annual vote in Parliament on what the immigration number should be. And that, in my view,
01:48should be a lot, lot lower than anything we've seen recently, and a lot, lot lower than recent
01:53forecasts. But Labour in Parliament voted against that Conservative proposal just a few weeks ago.
02:00So, I mean, I'm afraid so far, what we've heard from Labour, we may be hearing some rhetoric,
02:04but we have not seen action. They've failed to do those things I've just mentioned.
02:08Can we talk to you about illegal migration now? Because we are expecting to cross that threshold
02:14today. Those record numbers, 10,000 people crossing the Channel since January. And we know with warm
02:22weather, which we're expecting this week, I think it's about 27 degrees on Thursday, that we will
02:27inevitably see more small boat crossings. We were talking to Stephen Kinnock earlier on in the government
02:32morning round, and he blamed the dire inheritance that he was left by the Tories. What do you say to that?
02:37Well, that's obviously total nonsense. I mean, first of all, this year so far, 2025,
02:44has been the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel. Secondly,
02:50we know you need a deterrent. You need to deter people from crossing. We had a deterrent plan,
02:56the Rwanda scheme, which was due to start at the end of July, whereby everybody crossing the channel
03:02on a dinghy, illegal immigrants crossing the channel on a dinghy, would have been sent straight
03:07to Rwanda. And we know from when Australia did that about 10 years ago, that very, very quickly,
03:13within a matter of a few weeks or a couple of months, they just stopped crossing. Because if
03:18you're an illegal immigrant in France, why would you cross the English Channel on a dinghy if you're
03:22going to wind up in Rwanda? And it was Labour who cancelled that scheme before it even started.
03:30And because we now have no deterrent, that is why the numbers are worse than they ever were before.
03:34So if we get back into office, the first thing we'll do is establish a removals deterrent so that
03:40every illegal immigrant crossing the channel gets sent somewhere else very quickly, whether it's
03:45Rwanda or somewhere else, to deter them making those crossings. Now, Labour came in saying they
03:50were going to smash the gangs. Well, that claim lies in tatters. That's total nonsense. The gangs have
03:55not been smashed. And as I just said, 2025 so far, it has been the worst year in history for illegal
04:02immigrants crossing the channel. And that is Labour's fault because they cancelled Rwanda
04:06before it even started.
04:09It's going to be smashed in Ukraine. Zelensky or Putin, what's going on there? I mean, you saw the
04:14amazing conversation between Donald Trump and President Zelensky at the Vatican on Saturday.
04:23What did you make of what you saw? What way do you see now that President Trump seems to have
04:30turned a bit on President Putin? How do you see this going?
04:36Well, I mean, I was very pleased to see President Trump apparently changing his mind a little
04:41bit. Up until now, President Trump has been very, appears to have been quite friendly with
04:47Putin and taken a very sympathetic view to President Putin. I've always found that astonishing,
04:52to be honest, because very obviously, Putin is the aggressor. Russia invaded Ukraine. They're
04:58trying to destroy Ukraine, which is a sovereign democratic country. And I've never understood
05:03politicians who've been pro-Putin. I mean, Nigel Farage is pro-Putin. Farage has said that he
05:08admires Putin. And only last year, Nigel Farage was saying that the invasion was Ukraine's fault,
05:14which is a disgusting and, frankly, outrageous thing to say. But look, I'm pleased that, I mean,
05:19what's clearly happened is that over the last few weeks, Putin's behaviour has continued to be very,
05:24very bad, you know, bombing civilians in Ukraine with missiles. And Trump is obviously beginning
05:31to lose patience with Putin, which I think is a good thing. And I hope that Trump does give
05:37Zelensky and Ukraine more support and helps secure a peace, yes, but a peace that is just to Ukraine.
05:47And I think permanently giving up loads of territory and demilitarising Ukraine, which is what Putin
05:53wants, is completely unreasonable. And I hope that, in fact, it's immoral. And I hope that Trump,
05:59President Trump, changes his position a bit and does more to support Ukraine, because they deserve
06:04support. Home Secretary, we've got to leave it there. Thank you for your time.
06:08That conversation. Sorry? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I was saying thank you, Eamon.
06:14Okay. Thank you very much indeed, Chris. Thank you very much. We'll leave it there.
06:17Thank you. Thank you.
Comments