David Cameron defends Suella Braverman’s Rwanda migration policy

David Cameron has defended Suella Braverman’s Rwanda deportation plan to stop the small boats, saying no one had come up with a better alternative.

In his first public comments on the scheme, the former prime minister said he had “huge sympathy” with the Government’s attempts to crush the people smuggling gangs by detaining and deporting anyone who arrived illegally to safe countries such as Rwanda or their homeland.

“If you don't have a better answer to the things that the Government is doing to try and stop this illegal trade, then I think there's no point criticising,” Mr Cameron told LBC.

“So until you've got a better answer, you won't find me in radio and television studios telling Suella Braverman what to do.”

His comments come as the Government’s illegal migration bill returns to the House of Lords for its detailed line-by-line scrutiny with dozens of peers expected to criticise the plans and seek to amend them.

The bill, which ministers hope to enact this summer, bars the vast majority of migrants who arrive illegally from claiming asylum in the UK before they are deported to Rwanda or another country.

Mr Cameron said: “We know that there are ways of shutting down people-smuggling businesses. When I was prime minister, when lots of people were moving from Turkey to Greece, a much criticised deal was done, that everyone who arrived in Greece from Turkey was sent back to Turkey.

“The people smuggling operation collapsed because suddenly the people smugglers couldn't sell what they were selling. So I have huge sympathy with the Government when they say we've got to collapse the model of the people smugglers. And that means people who arrive through that manner shouldn't be able to stay.”

With figures due to be published on Thursday showing net migration at a record 700,000 to one million last year, Mr Cameron warned that it was a “three-sided” problem that was not just about immigration controls.

“There's what welfare reforms you have, to try to make sure that people who can work do work. And then there's what training and apprenticeship and other schemes you have, to make sure that we are training people for the jobs that our country is delivering,” said Mr Cameron.

“Borders do matter. Dealing with the small boats does matter. Having firm policies for returning people who have no right to be here does matter.

“But if you're not reforming welfare, so we're getting working age people who are on out-of-work benefits back into work, and if you're not training people for the jobs we're making available, then you'll never solve the problem. That's the way to think about it. And I'm sure the Government is thinking hard about it.”

His comments come just a day after Mrs Braverman unveiled plans to bar all foreign students except those doing postgraduate research from bringing family members to the UK, a move designed to cut net migration by up to 150,000 a year.