Robert Jenrick has called for asylum seekers to be detained in “camps” as he claimed Reform UK’s immigration plan doesn’t go far enough.
The shadow justice secretary said that while “there’s a lot to welcome” in Nigel Farage’s immigration plans, which would see the party attempt to deport 600,000 migrants over five years if it won power at the next election, he criticised the party’s proposals on housing asylum seekers.
“They should be detained in camps,” he told The Spectator. “The facilities will need to be rudimentary prisons, not holiday camps. It’s not what Reform have suggested, which is cabins with a fence around them.”
Mr Jenrick also criticised Mr Farage for rolling back an initial pledge to deport “absolutely anyone” 24 hours after he unveiled immigration measures last week, instead focusing on undocumented men as opposed to women and children.
He said: “The people-smuggling gangs would exploit women and girls, and it would encourage even more young men to pose as 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds.”
Further, he said he believes that “legal migration is even more harmful to the country because of the sheer eye-watering numbers of people who have been coming across in recent years perfectly legally. It’s putting immense pressure on public services.”
“I think the country now needs breathing space after this period of mass migration. The age of being open to the world and his wife, who are low-wage, low-skilled individuals, and their dependents has to come to an end. Reversing recent low-skilled migration will likely mean a sustained period of net emigration. I would support that,” he said, adding that under his plans, the UK would “stay open to the very best and brightest” who were “going to make a massive economic contribution to the country.”
Jenrick’s statement follows widespread protests in the UK surrounding asylum seekers and the use of hotels to temporarily house them in the UK. He described his visit to a protest outside the Bell Hotel in Epping as a “moment of radicalisation”.
The hotel has become the centre of anti-migrant discussions after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl last month. He has denied the charges.
“I met a single mum who had three teenage daughters,” Mr Jenrick said. “The oldest daughter, who was about to go to university, had bought some workmen’s boots and put them outside because she wanted the illegal migrants to think there was a man in the house.”
This isn’t the first time Mr Jenrick has suggested measures to make the UK a hostile environment for asylum seekers. In his role as immigration minister in 2023, he asked that murals of carton characters to be removed from the walls of the Kent Intake Unit, a reception centre for unaccompanied child asylum seekers, because he thought they were too welcoming and sent the wrong message.
Images of characters such as Mickey Mouse and Baloo from The Jungle Book were painted over, which he justified by saying “the cohort of unaccompanied children who passed through last year were largely teenagers and we didn’t feel the site was age-appropriate, but it does contain a range of support for children and infants.
“Nothing about the decoration of sites changes the fundamentals that if someone comes to the UK we will treat them with decency and compassion at all times.”
