London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Priti Patel vows to curb eco protests and asylum appeals in 2022

Priti Patel vows to curb eco protests and asylum appeals in 2022

Home secretary delivers legal wishlist in new year video message which opposition calls ‘slogans not solutions’
The home secretary has said she intends to crack down on eco protesters and end the “legal merry-go-round” of “spurious” asylum seeker claims in 2022.

In a new year video message posted on social media, Priti Patel said she was proud of many things the government had achieved in 2021, such as the launch of its strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.

But she said there was “much more to do” this year, including cracking down on eco protesters on the country’s roads, who she said had “caused misery to the law-abiding public”.

Patel added that she was committed to tightening asylum laws and stopping crossings over the channel from France, after a year that saw more than 25,000 people reach the UK in small boats.

In response the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and a leading human rights barrister said the government needed to look at its own role in asylum claims. Extinction Rebellion also accused the government of not taking necessary action over the climate crisis and wrongly blaming protesters.

Looking ahead to 2022, Patel said it was “vital” the government’s police and crime bill passed through parliament.

“The bill will introduce mandatory life sentences for those who kill an emergency worker in the course of their duty and also crack down on the so-called eco protesters on our roads and motorways that have caused misery to the law-abiding public,” she said.

“I will also continue to prioritise fixing our broken asylum system. It has been untouched for two decades, but passing our (nationality and) borders bill into law in 2022 will finally give us the powers we need to deliver long-overdue change.

“A fairer system deterring illegal entry across the Channel by cracking down on people smugglers and ending the legal merry-go-round of spurious asylum claims is what the British people expect and we will deliver.”

Patel also said the streets were safer thanks to a reduction in knife crime, gun crime and murders.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there was an 8% decrease in knife-enabled crime in the year ending June 2021, compared with the previous year.

Homicides were also down 11%, it said, while offences involving firearms fell by 6%. All figures were for crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales.

However the ONS stressed that patterns of crime over that period had been “significantly affected” by the Covid pandemic and government instructions to limit social contact.

Patel said: “Whether it be cutting crime, keeping our country safe from terrorism or controlling our borders, we have a range of plans in progress to deliver for the British people. That is an ambitious programme, but one I will be relentless in delivering as we focus on building back safer in the year ahead.”

Adam Wagner, a human rights barrister at Doughty Street chambers, said the Home Office needed to review its own role in asylum claims rather than place responsibility on lawyers.

“This home secretary, and the government she represents, spend too much time making out that lawyers and legal process are somehow responsible for the broken asylum system,” he said.

“The truth is that almost half of all asylum appeals are successful – and the reason for that is a poorly resourced Home Office which blames everyone but itself for shoddy decision-making. The asylum system protects the world’s most vulnerable and we should all focus on doing better by them.”

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: “This is the action of a government who are clinging on to a model of business as usual that is heading us towards disaster and they would rather imprison grandparents, teachers and priests than face the scale of the changes that they need to make.”

Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the government had the wrong priorities: “Prosecutions have plummeted, recorded violent crime and antisocial behaviour are up, just 1.4% of rapes are going to court and more victims are being let down. Asylum decisions are down, the backlog is going up, dangerous boat crossings are increasing, and safe, legal routes are being cut.

Cooper said that 95% of Windrush scandal victims have had no compensation as yet and added: “The Home Office plan for 2022 should be to put right these deep-rooted problems caused by 11 years of Conservative policies. Instead, this is a Home Office of slogans not solutions so they just keep making things worse.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×