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WATCH: Britain 'must leave the ECHR' to tackle migrant crisis, Matt Vickers says
Jan 5, 2026
Matt Vickers has launched a brutal takedown of Labour's latest move to tackle Britain's migrant crisis, accusing the Government of "tinkering around the edges".Speaking to GB News, the Shadow Immigration Minister declared there are "already powers in place" to remove mobile devices from illegal migrants.FULL STORY HERE.
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0:00
Good morning, Matt. Nice to see you and thanks for your company
0:02
I shan't be asking you about bin retrieving. Good morning. However, I would like to ask you about this new sort of sweeping powers
0:10
with bells and whistles on to search illegal migrants for their mobile phones
0:16
It seems utterly bizarre, Matt, that this wasn't a thing anyway. Are we so inept as a nation that we can't search illegal migrants for mobile phones
0:25
Well, first up, I am a regular LNER traveller. It brings me down from my part of the world
0:29
It's minging that he took the stuff out the bin. But what is really bad is that they do not sell Haribo on LNER trains
0:35
They do sell it on the Grand Central. You heard it here first. Outrage. But when it comes to those mobile phones and removing them from illegal migrants
0:41
the reality is there was already powers in legislation to do this
0:45
I think the Migration Act allowed us to take electronic devices, to search them, to seize them, and to do all those things
0:52
But the other part of that legislation that the Labour government repealed required the Home Secretary to remove people who came here illegally
1:00
This is all tinkering round the edges. The only way to solve this illegal migration crisis
1:05
is to remove people who come here illegally. They aren't sat in Cali going
1:10
oh my God, if I get over there they might take one of my ten phones off me. They aren't sat there trembling about this one-in-one-out scheme
1:16
that sees 99 of the people who arrived whilst it been in place stay The only way to do this is to remove them People who break into this country who come in illegally without permission without the passport who have no right to be here should be removed
1:31
That's how you solve this. Everybody at home knows it. It's a common sense approach and we know it works because we tested it
1:36
when we had that agreement in place with Albania. It was one of the top places from which people were arriving in the country
1:41
We stopped those people coming, we removed them straight away and all of a sudden 93% less of them were arriving in this country
1:49
We need a deterrent, we need it in place. Everything else is tinkering around the edges
1:53
But in order to do that, as you know, you'd need to leave the ECHR, which of course now is Tory policy
1:57
but the government are saying they don't want to do that. Instead, the ECHR can be reformed
2:02
Do you think that is a possibility? No. We've been through this
2:09
In fact, we've got a huge, lengthy document prepared by some of the greatest legal minds in the country
2:13
that tell you why you need to leave the ECHR to get this done
2:17
tell you about the consequences and the process for doing so. When you look at stories like Chicken Nugget Gate
2:23
when you look at people who... I mean, Shamima Begum is the latest story on that front, isn't she
2:28
Somebody who this country, who the people that, you know, the public, the great British public, have elected to Parliament
2:33
to represent them, to make decisions, those decisions should be made in there, not by the ECHR, not abroad, by foreign courts
2:40
We need to leave the ECHR. We need to get a grip on it so that we can prevent people breaking in the country
2:45
but also so that we can remove people who have come here and committed some of the most heinous, vile crimes
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