Cleverly hopes to help displaced people but ensure ‘goodwill’ of UK not eroded

The Home Secretary says it is important for the UK to “help support the poor and dispossessed” people around the world, but he wants to ensure they do not take advantage of “the goodwill of the UK”.

In a major speech in New York on Tuesday, James Cleverly will also say that “doing the right thing” by migrants “doesn’t necessarily mean relocating them to our country”.

He said Western powers must help would-be migrants to “stay and thrive at home” in order to stem the international migration crisis.

Speaking to PA in San Francisco on Monday, Mr Cleverly said: “I will make the point in the speech that it is important for countries like the UK to help support the poor and dispossessed from around the world.

“I will also make the point that that can’t always mean that we take all those people into our own country.”

He continued: “Many people seek asylum and are granted asylum in the UK, we have a strong and proud tradition of that.”

“But, ultimately, we want to try and reduce the number of people that are displaced, reduce the number of people who need refuge and ensure that the goodwill of the UK is not eroded by people abusing the system by coming here illegally and by the people smugglers who prey on the weak and the vulnerable.”

Mr Cleverly will use his speech at the end of his two-day trip to the United States to call for a “big, open, global conversation about what more we need to do together” to tackle migration.

Speaking at the Carnegie Council for Ethics on International Affairs, Mr Cleverly plans to stress the need to reverse the “talent drain” of migrants leaving their home nations.

According to briefed extracts of his speech, the Home Secretary will say: “While remaining welcoming and generous, we must also urgently consider the impact that this level of migration has not just on those countries where migrants seek to settle, or through which they transit, but also on the countries they leave behind, and indeed on the migrants themselves.

“We need to do more, together.

“A talent drain can have a devastating effect, causing a flight of capital, huge gaps in the workforce and security issues.

“It can be extremely expensive for countries to train professionals who then take their skills elsewhere.

“Furthermore, citizens will suffer if their country fails to invest in skills and training and then plugs those gaps with immigration … doing the right thing by someone in need doesn’t necessarily mean relocating them to our own country.

“Central to solving the international migration challenge is doing more, collectively, to help people to stay and thrive at home.”

The Home Secretary’s comments come as a huge debate rages in the Conservative Party about the best way of tackling both legal net migration — which saw a record high of 745,000 incomers in 2022 on the Tories’ watch — and authorised migration.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping boats of migrants coming to the UK one of his top priorities ahead of a general election expected later this year.

Mr Cleverly will declare to his international audience that the UK’s Rwanda policy, which will see migrants arriving into Britain after crossing the Channel in a small boat deported to the east African country, is an “innovative way of dealing with illegal migration”.

That is despite not a single asylum seeker being removed by the scheme, which was first announced almost two years ago.