Tory MP pushing plan for Parliament to get vote on capping number of immigrants coming to UK
PARLIAMENT would get a vote on capping the number of immigrants coming to the UK under a plan being pushed by a Tory MP.
Bob Seely says the only way to stop Britain’s soaring immigration figures is to make MPs directly responsible for numbers.
They would be given an annual vote on the number of legal migrants and refugees allowed in, under his plan.
“The only way MPs will get serious about this issue is if they have to look you, their constituents, in the eye and explain their actions,” he writes in the Sun on Sunday.
“When MPs own migration numbers, they will know that there is no one else to blame, because they know that although we are now free from Brussels, you have the power to hand them their P45s.”
Ministers will be expected to present an annual figure to Parliament and MPs will be able to amend and vote on it.
READ MORE IN POLITICS
“The current numbers are unsustainable,” he added.
“Where on earth are we going to build the new housing, or the schools, or mitigate the pressure on GPs and services?”
Refugee numbers would be fixed and all would have to come from UN programmes, according to his plan.
None could arrive directly on our shores or via organised crime.
Most read in The Sun
“It’ll give us the added benefit of being able to shut down much of our asylum system, which is increasingly unfit for purpose,” he added.
“What sane system gave almost 50 per cent of adult Albanians asylum when they came from a safe country? It’s just crazy.”
MPs could choose to increase refugee figures in special circumstances like we did for Ukraine and Hong Kong.
The MP for the Isle of Wight plans to bring his private members bill before parliament in the next few months.
He added: “If we can’t make it law next year, it should be at the heart of a popular Conservative manifesto for the next election.”
It comes as Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick is working up plans to deal with unsustainable levels of immigration.
Official figures put last year’s net migration figure higher than previously thought - at a record 745,000 people.