Member

The noble Lord, Lord Alton, for whom I have great respect, and others talked about the importance of balance. This unbalances the Bill. In many respects, its wording is not tough enough, but the Government have made a huge strategic mistake in scrapping the Rwanda plan. It was not perfect and I accept that it was costly and did not deliver in the timescale that we all envisaged. But there has to be a plan B if you scrap plan A. Even allowing for that, this Bill is trying to deal with a significant public safety and security issue that may even be considered an emergency if the numbers keep rising. So, I do not agree with the amendments, because it would be wrong to alter the mens rea threshold. The case has not been made for that.