00:00Have you already failed, though, in that mission to smash the gangs?
00:03Because it looks as though it's set to be a record-breaking year for people crossing the channel.
00:0812,000 people have crossed already so far this year.
00:12I mean, potentially, we're looking at 50,000 people crossing in 2025.
00:19Well, look, we've only been in power for nine months,
00:23but we have already set up Border Security Command,
00:26which is a new agency, to ensure we've got the intelligence and the measures in place to crack down on those gangs.
00:34We've already had some successes in recent weeks with a Turkish gang that we were able to root out.
00:40So, look, there's still more to do.
00:42And as the Prime Minister set out on Monday, what people care about, what we're hearing from people,
00:48is that they don't want uncontrolled immigration.
00:51Under the last government, we had net migration of nearly a million people.
00:55That is putting great pressure on communities and it is, you know, putting pressure on the bonds that bond us together as a society.
01:03So, we are intent on doing something about it.
01:07As the Prime Minister set out the immigration white paper and the plan for doing precisely that earlier this week.
01:13I mean, that speech, though, has been criticised by some of your own colleagues, hasn't it?
01:19I mean, it's been the island...
01:20You talked about the dangers of becoming an island of strangers,
01:23which some people said, you know, was reminiscent of an Enoch Powell speech,
01:28the Rivers of Blood speech.
01:31It's dangerous territory for the Prime Minister, this, isn't it, amongst his own backbenchers.
01:36He's coming out with things that a lot of your own party don't like.
01:39Well, you know, the Prime Minister and the government have rejected those comparisons.
01:46We are talking about ensuring that we have a system that controls the numbers coming in.
01:52But at the same time, we obviously recognise that diversity in our society is a strength.
01:59We had people come here in the post-war period to help rebuild the country.
02:03But net migration of nearly a million people is too many,
02:08and we need to control the borders and bring the numbers down
02:10so that the pressure on communities is not unsustainable.
02:14I'm a renalist.
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