Early evening summary
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has said she “never ignored legal advice” on keeping asylum seekers at an overcrowded immigration centre. In a Commons statement, she claimed she never blocked proposals for asylum seekers to be housed in hotels (despite reports quoting multiple sources claiming she did). But Braverman also seemed to accept that the overcrowding at the Manston immigration centre was partly her responsibility, because she said she refused to “prematurely release thousands of people into local communities without having anywhere for them to stay”. (See 5.27pm.) She also outraged charities representing refugees by saying that asylum seekers were staging an “invasion” of the south coast of England. (See 6.43pm.) Some Tory MPs strongly backed her stance in the Commons, and while others are privately alarmed at what she is doing at the Home Office, they did not speak out in the chamber this afternoon. Braverman’s performance may boost her standing in her party in the short term, but it is unlikely to quell allegations that she mishandled the situation. These are from ITV’s Robert Peston.
There is basic contradiction in @SuellaBraverman’s statement to MPs on crisis at Manston asylum-processing centre. On one hand she says she has not illegally ignored official advice to secure alternative accommodation for asylum seekers and on other hand she says she…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 31, 2022
refused to release asylum-seekers to “no-fixed-abode” in the community. What she has not explained is that if her critics are wrong, that she didn’t frustrate deals to procure accommodation, why there is an excess of 2500 asylum seekers sleeping on the bare floor at…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 31, 2022
Manston. She has singularly failed to explain who is responsible for this disastrous mismatch, so damaging for the UK’s humanitarian reputation, if not her - especially since she has been heaping praise on her officials and colleagues
— Robert Peston (@Peston) October 31, 2022
For the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope, the crucial claim she made was that illegal immigration is out of control.
My view: Suella Braverman saying: "The system is broken. Illegal immigration is out of control" is huge.
— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) October 31, 2022
It reminds me of when Labour Home secretary John Reid said the Home Office was "not fit for purpose".
He broke it up a few months later, creating the Ministry of Justice.
Updated
Andrew Slaughter (Lab) asks if Braverman ever used other unsecure forms of communication, like WhatsApp, to pass on government documents.
Braverman dodges the questions. She says she explained all this in her letter today (it did not cover this point), and she attacks Labour’s record on immigration.
The statement is now over. Braverman was taking questions for about an hour and 40 minutes.
Updated
