Politicians quizzed over illegal immigration and controversial Rwanda plan at Portsmouth North hustings at The City of Portsmouth College

The college hosted a hustings event featuring candidates for Portsmouth North with Labour candidate Amanda Martin and incumbent Conservative Penny Mordaunt. Portsmouth City Councillor Darren Sanders represented the Liberal Democrat candidate, Simon Dodd.

When asked about their respective parties’ plans to address illegal immigration, Cllr Sanders remarked, “I’d make the Home Office work for starters.” He added that slow processing times for migrants and the government’s efforts to house them have reduced accommodation for the homeless, leading to more rough sleepers “on the streets”.

He said the Liberal Democrats would scrap the Rwanda scheme, which would send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and resettlement – reducing the pressure on the UK’s asylum system.

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Penny Mordaunt accepted that there is “room for improvement” in the Home Office but that it is “improving considerably”. She added that the UK has return agreements with countries like Albania but challenges still remain in “trying to return people who have no right to be here to countries that might not be safe – that’s why you need initiatives like Rwanda. We’re not an outlier as a country for doing this – lots of nations are doing it and the United Nations.”

She added that the government has arrested over 1,000 people smugglers since the start of 2024, many of which are in prison. Between 2018 and 2022, the UK’s backlog of asylum applications rose from 27,000 to 132,000. There were 84,460 cases at the end of March this year.

By contrast, Amanda Martin described the proposal as a “gimmick” and a “complete waste” of taxpayers’ money.

“Essentially the border forces don’t have enough powers and what we’re doing is criminalising the people that are getting on the boats instead of criminalising those gangs. We would need to employ additional staff and use the money that has already been put aside for Rwanda to clear the backlog of people staying in hotels.”