It’s a privilege to have been appointed to serve as Shadow Home Secretary by our new Leader Kemi Badenoch. The safety of our country and security of our borders is the first duty of Government.
The Labour Government has already showed itself to be soft on crime and on criminals. They have released dangerous criminals early without the proper checks they promised and have dropped the Conservatives' plans for delivering Immediate Justice.
On Borders, they scrapped the Rwanda plan before it even started. Had the deterrent effect commenced in July as planned, we would not have seen over 17,000 illegal small boat crossings since Keir Starmer became Prime Minister.
We now have a mission to hold Labour to account and win back the trust of the public. Conservatives need to work to develop detailed and credible plans, based on our core principles, in order to do that.
Our principles include zero tolerance for crime and criminals, and ensuring dangerous or persistent offenders are behind bars. We must always protect and safeguard victims. We will also support the Police and Security Services in their work to keep us safe.
We need to very substantially reduce legal migration, aim to end illegal entry to the UK and remove those with no right to be here – especially criminals. Nothing can be allowed to stand in the way of this critical mission.
I look forward to working constructively with Parliamentary colleagues, party members, the law and order community and others on this agenda.
Rt Hon Chris Philp MP
Member of Parliament for Croydon South
