Prime Minister Rishi Sunak returns to the sofa
Rishi Sunak returned to our famous This Morning sofa, this time as Prime Minister, making him the fifth most recent British Prime Minister to visit our studio whilst in office.
The Conservative Leader addressed the new immigration figures, saying, “The numbers are too high, it’s as simple as that and I want to bring them down.
“That’s why this week we have announced new measures, which I think is the biggest level of measures to bring the number down. It’s a new policy which limits the amount of family members that people who are studying here can bring with them when they come and study here.
"What we’ve seen over the last few years is that that number of dependents has absolutely spiralled to almost 150,000 dependents of people who are studying here and we’re saying from now on that’s not going to be allowed and there’s a few other things we’re doing as well. But that’s going to make a big difference. People are [also] talking about illegal migration and stopping the boats, this matters as well and people should be rest assured…”
When asked if he was still planning to send flights to Rwanda despite mixed feelings from the public, Rishi said, “Absolutely. Certainly people I talk to, they are supportive of it because they realise the system we have at the moment isn’t working."
He added, “If you come here illegally I want it to be crystal clear that you won’t be able to stay. We’ll detain you and we’ll send you back to your own country if it’s safe and if it’s not then you’ll go to Rwanda which is also safe for you. And that’s the policy that we want to put in place.”
On the Suella Braverman speeding course row, Rishi responded, “Sadly politics is full of these types of things [distractions] but Alison, I haven’t let her off the hook"
Rishi said, “Look, ultimately she took the points, she paid the fine as she should have done… she’s made a full account of it, she’s apologised and it’s right to draw a line under it now.”
Addressing vaping and young children, Rishi said, “I have two young girls, and I also worry about that. And we have recently funded a ‘hit squad’ who are going to go and tackle all these shops that shouldn’t be selling vapes to children and we are also looking at strengthening the rules on how they market it, promote it, what they look like… because they do look like they are targeted to kids which is ridiculous. I don’t want my kids to be seduced by any of these things.”