The minister acknowledged the concerns raised by Chris Philp and reiterated the Government's commitment to addressing illegal immigration. She emphasised the ongoing efforts to strengthen borders and work closely with France to prevent illegal crossings. The minister stated that the Government will continue to take robust action against illegal immigration and criminal gangs, ensuring that those who cross the line into illegality face the full force of the law.

Minister Sarah Jones acknowledged the concerns raised by Chris Philp and emphasised the government's commitment to addressing illegal immigration. She noted the 43% reduction in small boat crossings this year compared to last year, attributing this improvement to the new payment-by-results agreement with France and the increased funding for French police. Jones also emphasised the government's efforts to control the UK's borders and the need for a fair migration system.

Sarah Jones thanked Mike Tapp for his question and confirmed that she had spoken with senior police officers to understand the situation better. She acknowledged that the protest was planned and involved participants from outside the area, which posed challenges for the police. Jones committed to learning the necessary lessons and ensuring that the police have the resources and intelligence required to handle future incidents effectively.

The Government are looking at all decisions and will learn any lessons. The two events were separate but connected in online activity. The Government are making sure they understand what happened and are monitoring the situation. They are also pushing resources from the French police down the coastline to respond to the trend of people leaving France further to the west.

The Government are making improvements in terms of the National Crime Agency, intelligence gathering, and going after criminal gangs. They are also reforming the asylum system to reduce incentives for people to come into the country. The asylum grant rate has fallen from 77% in 2022 to 38% this year, indicating progress.

The number of people coming into the country has decreased by 43% from last year to this year. The Minister does not agree that the situation is being 'invaded'.

The direction of travel is to reduce the numbers to a much more manageable level, so that we have control of our borders. The Minister responsible would be happy to have a conversation with him regarding any of the plans going forward.

The Government are aware that people are starting to launch boats further west along the French coast. The force was given the mutual aid that it asked for, and agencies would be working together much more closely if there was a national police service.

My hon. Friend is right: we cannot normalise this kind of behaviour, nor will we. It would not be right for any Government to do so. What we saw in Dover involving Patriot Platform, a far-right group engaging in a lot of racism and thuggery and disrupting people’s daily lives, cannot be tolerated. Of course, we will always ensure that the police have the resources that they need. We recently legislated for new powers for the police to insist that people remove their face coverings at protests, but, when people are going about their daily business, it is absolutely fine to wear them for religious reasons, and that will continue.

As I have said, Labour is doing the hard work of restoring the control at our borders that was lost under the last Government. We have made progress, and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that we have that control and have a fair system, and to ensure that those who are genuinely claiming asylum are given a safe haven on our shores, as we have done for many years. However, we will also reduce the incentives for people to claim asylum here, rather than in other places, and we will make sure that we regain that control.

Of course disruption was caused well beyond the immediate protest, because of the nature of the roads and the protest on the A20 and the surrounding roundabouts. That had a huge impact; a great many people wanting to go about their business were unable to do so. The police response, however, was good. The protest started at 7.30 am, and well before midday the protesters had been dispersed. The police established a gold command structure, as they do in such cases, declaring a major incident and ensuring that the protest was stopped. However, this behaviour is very disruptive, and the wearing of masks is clearly intimidatory. We will do everything to ensure that the police have the powers that they need to stop such protests.

Of course people are scared and angry about the fact that, as they see it, the borders are not secure. As the right hon. and learned Lady will know from her time in the Home Office, we have come some way since then, and have improved the system significantly. More than 1,000 boats and engines have been seized, system-wide arrests are up by 70%, 48,000 crossings have been prevented, there has been a 40% increase in French boots on the ground, and we have increased surveillance technology. There has been a huge 42% drop in the number of boats coming over, and we have removed more than 80,000 illegal migrants and foreign criminals. People are right to express a view, and it was disingenuous of the right hon. and learned Lady to suggest that I was calling those people racist, when I had made it very clear that there were people in Portsmouth who were concerned, and that local residents were coming out because they were angry. We have heard about that, and the actions of those people are very different from those of the racist thugs we see in other places—and who were there as well—and from the whipping up of hatred online. We will continue to bear down on illegal boat crossings. Let me pay tribute to Kent and Hampshire police. Kent police dealt with 1,300 calls to 999 on Saturday, and Hampshire police dealt with 1,000. While these incidents were going on, a lot of work was being done to keep us safe across the counties.

We keep all legislation under review when it comes to public order, and there is a big piece of work that Ken Macdonald—Lord Macdonald—has done for us, which we are considering. There are other powers on face coverings in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, but we will always look at these things.

We are keeping all these things under review. There is no intelligence to suggest that people who leave France from further west want to land anywhere other than where they normally do, but we keep all these things under control. Today I have spoken to multiple people at the National Police Co-ordination Centre and in Border Force, and to the police more widely, and these things are kept under review. There is no evidence of what the hon. Gentleman suggests, but the criminals are being disrupted over here, and we know that they will try to change tactics. However, there is no evidence at the moment about where they are trying to land.

There was no two-tier policing in this situation. My hon. Friend is right to say that if people hold banners supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation, they will get arrested, and she is right to say that the protests were not spontaneous. The Dover incident was obviously planned, and was obviously a tactic by a nasty organisation called Patriot Platform or South-East Patriots—I think it calls itself various different things. No notice was given to the police—that is why it was described as “spontaneous”—but it was clearly planned and intended to be intimidatory. I have talked to the police today, and I know that they are reviewing the closed-circuit television footage, the automatic number plate recognition data and all the evidence to see where criminality has occurred, and they will take action where it has occurred.

We are not pandering to the right-wing agenda at all. The police will come down hard on criminality, as we would expect. No one was arrested in Dover on Saturday, or in Portsmouth, but as I just said, the police will review all the evidence from the weekend. Where crimes have occurred, they will make the appropriate arrests.

Jones agrees that protesters should not be given political legitimacy and states that the police have removed protesters to allow people to go about their business. She also mentions that the police will learn lessons from these incidents and make arrests where necessary.

Jones suggests that Shelbrooke has already had conversations with immigration Ministers about this case and avoids getting in the way of those discussions. She also mentions the need to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK.

Jones states that she cannot comment on the intelligence situation but mentions the national co-ordination of the NPCC and the need to learn lessons from these incidents.

Jones explains that the police may have had to prioritise the safety of vulnerable people and that there may be arrests after investigations.

Jones condemns anyone who breeds racism and suggests that Reform MPs could address the issue of a Reform member's racist comments.

Jones clarifies that she did not say there was a lack of intelligence and states that the number of foreign national offenders being sent home and people turned down for asylum are significantly up compared to when the Conservatives were in power.

Jones emphasises the importance of improving the asylum system to reduce the vulnerability of refugees to criminal gangs and stresses that the UK has an honourable tradition of being a place of safety for those in need.

There is absolutely nothing that the Government have said that would suggest we do not understand the level of anger about the state of the country in which the right hon. Gentleman left us, and we have a big job to do. We of course understand the level of anger, but this Government are doing the hard work of restoring control at our border and fairness in our migration system, and no rhetoric from the right hon. Member—who does not have a leg to stand on, given his own personal involvement in the situation we find ourselves in—is going to stop us.

I thank the hon. Lady for the question, but I just disagree with her analysis. I think I have been very clear in calling out the racism we have seen. I have been very clear and straightforward in saying that, where criminal activity has occurred, the police should use the full force of the law. We have named far-right actors in this place today. If others do not do so, that is a matter for them, but thank goodness they are not in government currently. We will do everything we can. We can call out racism and call out the thuggery we have seen, while also accepting the anger that individuals feel about our borders, and the two are not incompatible.

No one voted for it multiple times, when they elected a Conservative Government promising to stop the boats, which did not happen. The number of people coming over this year is down 43% on last year so far. That is real progress. Is it enough? No. Will we go further? Yes.

The proportion of people being granted asylum has shrunk massively in the last few years, and we have removed more than 80,000 illegal migrants and foreign criminals from this country. We are improving the system and making the changes we need to make, and we will continue to do so.

It is not appropriate for me to comment on the intelligence and the situation, and who is or who is not going to be charged with these two incidents. We do not know enough at this point. The police are operationally independent for good reason and politicians should not be involved in that day-to-day process. Are we looking at the threats that we face in this country, of which there are many? Of course. Is the Home Secretary alive to all of those threats and doing everything she can with all the levers at her disposal? Absolutely.

On the one hand there is selective outrage, whataboutery, “let this sink in” and all the nonsense that people put on social media all the time. At the same time, there is a significant problem that we have to deal with. The two are true. We have to deal with the control at our borders, and we will bear down on that control to make sure we have what we need. At the same time, where there are malicious actors stirring up hatred and division, we have to—I would hope this House would—come together to promote the unity, solidarity and the compassion of which he speaks.