Richard Holden has launched a scathing attack on the Labour Government after the Home Office released a document for asylum seekers, guiding them on how “not to rape women”.
Speaking to GB News, the Shadow Transport Secretary hit out at the booklet, declaring it is an “absurd” and “ridiculous document” which states the “blindingly obvious”.
Describing the “serious crime” of rape, the document describes what consent is: “In the UK, both people must say ‘yes’ to sex. This is called consent.”
The information made clear it is still rape if you are “married to the person or in a relationship” and if a person “agreed once but changed their mind”.
They are warned that breaking these rules could lead to prison, the loss of their support and accommodation, and an adverse effect on their asylum claim.
Expressing his outrage at the guidance, Mr Holden told GB News that the UK’s migrant crisis is “quite clearly not going to be solved by that”.
He said: “We’ve got a very clear policy in this space. We’ve got to detain and deport within a week, that’s why Conservative policy under Kemi Badenoch is to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights, because the truth is that without doing that, we cannot get people out of our country.
“This new policy the Government have also been talking about, about moving asylum seekers around to different parts of the country, we don’t want to see people dispersed, we want to see people detained and deported. That’s what has to happen.”
Richard Holden has launched a scathing attack on a new Home Office document given to asylum seekers on how ‘not to rape women’
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GB NEWS / PA
Mr Holden said that under a Tory Government, illegal migrants would be “detained and deported within a week”.
He explained: “Within a week, people should be detained and deported if they’ve got no right to be in the UK.
“We shouldn’t be producing these ridiculous documents telling people what should be blindingly obvious to anybody. It’s an absurd position. Detain and deport is where we need to be.”
Asked for his verdict on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plan to implement “offshore processing”, the Tory MP argued that the Government appears to be “coming back around to the old Rwanda scheme”.
The Home Office has published a guide for illegal migrants on how ‘not to rape women’ in Britain | HOME OFFICE
He said: “I think it’s pretty clear, if you’ve got to deport people, you should send them back to their country of origin, if they’ll take them, if those countries won’t take them and we can’t send them back for certain reasons, such as Iran or Afghanistan, then we need to have somewhere else to put them.
“I think that’s what we legislated for under the last Government with the Rwanda scheme, which meant that people could be not just processed overseas, but if they came to the UK illegally, then they were never going to stay here. That’s what the Rwanda scheme was all about.”
Mr Holden stressed that the move is “nowhere near enough” to tackle the worsening migrant crisis in Britain.
He said: “I think Shabana Mahmood’s maybe trying to take a step in the right direction, but it’s nowhere near enough. The truth is, unless we get out of the ECHR, then we aren’t going to solve this problem of illegal migrant crossings.
Mr Holden told GB News that Shabana Mahmood must find ‘real solutions’ to the migrant crisis
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GB NEWS
“And we’ve all seen over the summer are those larger and larger boats coming across. We’ve got to end people dying in the Channel, and we’re only going to do that by ensuring that we leave the ECHR, which is the only way you can actually do proper offshore processing as well.”
Mr Holden urged Ms Mahmood to find a “real solution” to the migrant crisis: “I don’t doubt that Shabana Mahmood is better than some of her Labour colleagues in actually recognising that there’s a problem. The problem is, though, for her, is that she is not prepared to come up with the real solutions.
“And the real solutions are withdrawing from the ECHR, because only if we do that can we actually really deport those people who should not be in the UK and do it really quickly as well.”
In a statement, a Home Office spokesperson told GB News: “We expect everyone who comes to the UK to abide by our laws. If they do not, they will face consequences, including the refusal of their asylum claim and removal from the UK.
“Returns of failed asylum seekers have reached their highest level since 2010 under this Government.”