The Government is “determined to deliver” the changes necessary to reduce the number of people who are entering the UK illegally, Housing Secretary Steve Reed has said.

He told GB News: “I’m on the side of the British public. And at the last general election, all of us who are now Labour MPs were elected on a manifesto that committed to securing our borders, and that’s what this is all about.

“It’s a very important issue for the British public, and it’s something this government is determined to deliver change on where the previous government failed for 14 years. But even beyond that, we need to end this vile trade in human trafficking that is seeing gangs extort millions of pounds overall from some very vulnerable people and then putting them on dinghies, pushing them out into the English Channel where their lives are in danger.

“We need a different system to that, to protect our borders, but frankly, as well, to stop the risk of the loss of life.”

He added: “Here we are today, talking about the biggest overhaul of asylum policy in a generation since the Second World War, because we saw over the whole course of the previous government, the problem of illegal immigration got worse and worse and worse, and now we see it starting to put pressure on communities, particularly where the Conservatives chose to locate those asylum hotels.

“We can’t go on like this. We need a better system. So we’re focused on what we need to do to allow people who have an entitlement to come here, and they need refuge, they need sanctuary, but to deter those who do not have a right to be here.

“We’re doing that by removing people faster who have no right to be here. We’re removing more people, 50,000 so far. That’s a record over the term of this of this government so far.”

Asked about the grooming gangs inquiry, he said: “It’s very important on all of this that we bring the victims with us. These are the people, survivors who have survived some of the most horrific abuse imaginable.

“But there have been differences of views amongst those survivors. We saw it with the situation over the previous attempt to appoint a chair. We want to make sure that they can all come with us. If it takes a little more time to get it right, I’d rather get it right and bring them with us than alienate them.

“So that’s all that’s happening. This inquiry will happen. We will get the findings of that inquiry, and we will act on them as we are now acting on the findings of the inquiry set up by the previous government, whose recommendations they just ignored. But we do want to take all of the survivors with us, and it would be wrong to do anything else.”

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