Rwanda asylum policy: Preston MP Sir Mark Hendrick suggests Suella Braverman showed same 'compassion' as Jeremy Clarkson

Sir Mark Hendrick criticised the Home Secretary for saying that seeing a flight take asylum seekers to Rwanda is her “dream” and “obsession”.

Ms Braverman made those comments at an event at the Conservative Party conference in October.

Speaking during Home Office questions, the Preston MP urged her to “reflect” on what she said before the end of the year and argued she showed “all the sensitivity and compassion” of the former Top Gear presenter.

Clarkson recently landed himself in hot water after publishing a column in The Sun about how he “hated” the Duchess of Sussex.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) said it had received more than 6,000 complaints over the article and the TV presenter later said he was “horrified to have caused so much hurt”.

Sir Mark Hendrick told the Commons: “Can I ask the Home Secretary (if) for the end of this year she will reflect on the comments she made in early October regarding sending asylum seekers to Rwanda?

“She will be aware that a 28-year-old woman from Eritrea who was 37 weeks pregnant as a result of rape was in line to be deported to Rwanda. Doesn't talk of sending the asylum seekers to Rwanda as being a 'dream or an obsession' show all the sensitivity and compassion of Jeremy Clarkson?”

Ms Braverman said she regretted Sir Mark’s attempt to “lower the tone of this debate”, adding: “What I will say is I won't apologise for telling the truth about the scale of the challenge that we are facing when it comes to illegal migration.

“I will also reiterate my absolute commitment to delivering upon the groundbreaking agreement that we have wrought with Rwanda.

“It is compassionate. It is pragmatic and I invite the opposition parties to support it.”

Elsewhere in the session, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper argued the number of people with smuggling convictions has “collapsed” in the last three years.

She told MPs that in 2020 the Home Office secured just 12 convictions a month for people smuggling into the UK, with the number falling to eight in 2021.

Ms Cooper added: “The smuggler gangs have proliferated, the dangerous boat crossings putting lives at risk are up 20-fold, yet the number of criminals paying the price for their crime has collapsed. Why has she totally failed to take action against the criminal gangs?”

Ms Braverman attacked the party opposite, saying: “The reality is that it was Labour who voted against our new offences to prosecute the people smugglers who are causing the problem on the Channel in the first place.

“It was Labour who voted against tougher sentences, to enable us to deport foreign rapists and foreign drug dealers, it was Labour who would scrap our Rwanda scheme ... they have no plan whatsoever for illegal migration, they are against our plan and all they want is open borders.”

Meanwhile, pressed on the issue of asylum seekers being housed in hotels, immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the UK is “essentially full” and that it is “extremely hard” to find other forms of accommodation.

His comments came after Conservative MP Marco Longhi asked him to reconsider “the proposal for siting up to 144 illegal immigrants” in a hotel in Dudley North, his constituency.

Mr Jenrick said: “As a result of the good work undertaken by the Home Office in recent weeks to ensure that Manston, the site in Kent, is operating appropriately, we have now been able to implement some simple criteria, including risk to public order or disorder when choosing new hotels, and if there is compelling evidence in that regard then it should be taken into account by the Home Office, but there are no easy choices in this matter.

“The UK is essentially full, it is extremely hard to find new hotels or other forms of accommodation.”