Well, let's talk to the government now.
I'm joined by the security minister, Dan
Jarvis. Very good morning to you. Thanks
for joining us.
>> Good morning.
>> Why don't we start on the topic of
Ukraine since we just came off off
Mark's uh report there. I have an
overarching question for you as as a as
a former soldier who of course served in
in Iraq. Does it make you uncomfortable
all of this cowtowing to President
Putin? Are you someone that believes
force has to be met with force?
>> I mean, I describe it as diplomacy. I
describe it as the best strategy to try
and get a peace settlement. It's in all
of our interests, certainly the people
of Ukraine, but certainly in our own
national interest to bring this terrible
conflict in Ukraine to an end. I think
the summit in Alaska was very helpful in
terms of moving things forward. The
prime minister had a meeting just the
other day with 30 international leaders,
the coalition of the willing. So, it
feels to me like we are closer than
we've been at any point during the
conflict, but we've got to drive that
forward. We've got to get an agreement
in place and we've got to put in place a
long-term enduring peace settlement.
That is obviously in the interests of
Ukraine of wider European security, but
that is in our own national security
interests as well.
>> Do do you think though it's an element
of putting pragmatism ahead of
principle, ahead of your personal
principles, for example?
>> Well, I think in situations such as
this, you've got to be pragmatic. The
loss of life in Ukraine is horrific.
This is a conflict that has gone on for
far too long. It needs to be brought to
an end. Now, that is easy to say. It is
difficult to do. Clearly, there's a
pivotal role for the president of the
United States in this. We need to work
very closely with him as we are. I think
it was very significant to see the
European leaders uh in the White House
with President Zalinski supporting him,
having constructive conversations with
President Trump. All of that is very
positive, but we need to drive on and
keep going with it. And I know that the
prime minister is absolutely committed
to ensuring that the UK plays its full
part in that process.
>> On that very topic, I know there's
there's moving parts as to exactly what
will materialize. So, I'm not precisely
asking about that, but but when it comes
to the potential for boots on the ground
in Ukraine. Um, you obviously still have
a lot of of friends in the military. Is
it something that your friends in the
army are ready and willing to do if if
that becomes part of the security
guarantee?
>> Well, I obviously need to be very
careful not to set any hairs running and
we're not at that point and absolutely
no decisions have been made. But your
point is a is a good and a fair one.
Clearly those people who serve in our
armed forces will be thinking about the
situation in Ukraine and both they and
their families will be wondering about
what that might bring in the future. We
have to be incredibly mindful of that.
We are extremely fortunate to have the
best armed forces in the world. They are
extremely capable and the prime minister
and the defense secretary have been
crystal clear that we want to play our
part in ensuring that a long-term peace
settlement is is enforced for the longer
term and provide the reassurance both to
Ukraine but also the deterrence to
Russia. So this feels to me like a
pivotal moment. We are closer to peace
than we've been at any point previously
and the UK government, the prime
minister's been clear about this, will
want to play our full part in in terms
of ensuring that we secure that peace.
>> Let's talk about migration. What are you
announcing today?
>> Well, we've reached um another deal uh
with the government of Iraq. The
government of Iraq are a key strategic
ally in our work to combat irregular
migration. Everybody has seen um the the
very concerning scenes of significant
levels of crossings across the English
Channel and we're working very hard to
put a stop to that. The best way to do
that is to work upstream of the problem
and there are a number of strategic
partners that we're working very closely
with. Clearly the French and colleagues
in Europe um are an important part of
the solution. But we also need to look
further a field and that's why the home
secretary visited Iraq the back end of
last year. That's why the prime minister
uh met with the prime minister from Iraq
earlier this year and that's why just
yesterday we've signed this agreement
which will give us the ability to more
rapidly uh repatriate people who've come
uh here from Iraq. So, it's part of a
wider process of leveraging our
diplomatic relations to ensure that it
is not only much more difficult for
people to get here illegally in the
first place, but if they are able to do
that, we've got the ability to return
them much more quickly and much more
effectively than was the case
previously.
>> Can you return them immediately to Iraq
if they came from Iraq?
>> Well, the the the basis of the agreement
that we've signed yesterday makes that
much easier. So, this is a really good
positive move. We're very grateful to
the cooperation that's been shown by the
government of Iraq, but this is just a
part of the jigsaw and clearly we're
working uh very closely with a range of
other partners as I say in Europe, but
in further a field there's a lot of
activity taking place uh by the National
Crime Agency disrupting the vile
smuggling gangs that seek to bring
people here in in the first place. So
whilst this is a wicked problem that is
incredibly challenging, we're pushing
forward with diplomatic relationships
with our partners internationally and
also through the National Crime Agency
and through the use of for other assets
doing everything that we possibly can to
crack down on the on the the smugglers
who will seek to bring people here in
the first place.
>> Obviously hasn't brought down the small
boats numbers um yet and it it brings me
to the next topic which is where illegal
migrants are housed whilst they're
claiming uh asylum. And no doubt you saw
the decision around uh Eping Forest
yesterday. Will the government appeal
that decision?
>> Well, we'll see where we get to with
that specific decision. We're looking
very closely at it. I think it's
important to understand the context that
for many years there has been concern
and there have been protests about that
particular hotel in Eping. In fact, if
you go back to to 2022,
uh Robert Generick was the minister then
I think for the second time he opened
that hotel to asylum seekers and there
was talk of a legal challenge at that
particular moment. So I understand uh
why the district council have brought
forward a legal challenge. Clearly
>> is this Robert Generick's fault or is it
your fault that it's still being used as
a hotel at the moment?
>> The point I'm making is that there is a
long context to the use of this
particular hotel which goes back a
number of years. There have been
long-standing concerns about it. The the
bigger issue is how we can tackle the
asylum backlog. We inherited a very
significant backlog from the previous
government who effectively stopped
processing asylum claims. That's why we
rediverted the resource that been put in
place for Rwanda to ensure that we can
uh process asylum claims much more
quickly than was previously the case.
And I think the rate of processing is up
by 116%. We've returned 35,000 people
over the last year who don't have a
right to be here. So yes, we need to
drive down the use of hotels. The
government has made a very clear
commitment uh that hotels are not
appropriate accommodation for asylum
seekers and by the end of this
parliament we intend to have phased out
their use altogether.
>> I I guess you know the question
specifically though is on this
injunction against the use of the Bell
Hotel in Eping. Do you plan to to appeal
that? And you know I showed the Nigel
Farage oped today in the Telegraph. He
says your decision or not to appeal that
decision will show which side of the
debate the government is on. Is that is
that a fair framing of this or not?
>> Well, I haven't read Mr. Faraj's oped,
but I've always thought that the best
politicians try and bring people
together and the very worst politicians
try and drive them apart. We will look
closely at the circumstances in Eping.
We're looking at contingency oper
options to accommodate those people who
will now have to move out of that hotel.
But the bigger problem is ensuring that
we process asylum claims more quickly
and more effectively than has been the
case previously. And as I say, we've
made very significant progress with
doing that.
>> Where would they go if you don't I mean,
as you're saying, you're looking at
contingency. So, will it go to a
different hotel?
>> Yeah. Well, the the use of hotels is not
a long-term sustainable arrangement. In
this specific case, we'll have to look
at contingency options for how those
people can be accommodated in an
alternative way. We've made the
commitment to drive down the use of
hotels. Under the previous government,
there were 400 hotels in use. We're now
down to just over 200. That is still too
many, but we're looking very carefully
at how we can drive down the use of
hotels even further. And as I say, we've
made a commitment that we'll drive it
down to zero by the end of this
parliament.
>> Um, very very interesting on on on all
of those numbers. Um, we have to move on
just because we sort of out of time, but
I wanted to ask your your reflection on
uh the inflation number, 3.8% 8% uh for
the month of July. Of course, May was
3.4, June was 3.6. It's it's a trend
that you must be a little worried about.
>> Yeah, I mean the chancellor has
responded. Um I think there there is
more positive economic data that that we
can look at in terms of the the level of
growth um set against other G7
countries. But clearly economic growth
is the absolute priority. The
chancellor, the government have invested
a huge amount of time in trying to fix
the fundamentals of our economy. That is
a process that is underway. There'll be
a budget in the in the autumn, but
clearly it is an absolute priority for
us to ensure that we've got economic
growth in our country. That's how we're
going to uh pay for the public services
that we want to deliver for the country.
Um
>> just but on 3.8% inflation, it's almost
double what the Bank of England's
forecast is. It it is it not getting
into areas that causes a serious
concern. Yeah, that is a disappointing
number, but the government is absolutely
committed to ensure that we have
economic growth that as I say can fund
the public services that we are
ambitious to provide for the country. I
think we've seen a lot of positive
economic indicators over recent times.
Nobody is complacent in this government,
not least the chancellor about the scale
of the challenge. It's an absolute
priority for our government because I
say we're not going to be able to uh do
the ambitious things that we want to do
for the country without the economic
growth that we need to see. So, it's an
absolute priority. I know for the
chancellor and for the whole of the
government.