The tables are set to turn on Yvette Cooper over Channel migrants (Image: Getty)
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to be savaged over the Channel migrant crisis from a committee that she used to chair with a no-nonsense approach.
From October 2016 to December 2021, Ms Cooper was the respected chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, grilling Government MPs, officials, and police chiefs about the scandals of the day.
Now a new committee membership, with a Conservative at the helm, was announced today, with Ms Cooper expected to be an early invitee to give evidence before it and potentially face a “taste of her own medicine”.
The committee was set up to hold the Home Office and its ministers to account on matters of immigration, security and policing and anything that falls under its remit.
During her leadership of the committee, Ms Cooper was known for asking tough questions of those before it, including Tory ministers, government officials, and police chiefs.
She was particularly tough when it came to the English Channel migrants crisis, which began to significantly worsen in 2021.
Migrant crossings have increased under Labour (Image: Getty)
The new committee is chaired by Conservative MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, Dame Karen Bradley, who in February 2014 became Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime at the Home Office.
The committee is made up of ten other MPs – seven Labour, one Tory and two Lib Dems.
A committee spokesperson said: “Party seat allocations across and within committees is proportionate to the number of MPs elected to the House of Commons at the general election, with the precise number negotiated between the party whips through the Committee of Selection.”
Yet, according to sources, Ms Cooper will be one of the first people called to give evidence amid accusations the Channel crossings situation has worsened during her four months as Home Secretary.
Labour scrapped the Rwanda scheme, which was seen as a deterrent as asylum seekers would be sent to the African country to be processed, as soon as they won the General Election earlier this year.
Dame Karen Bradley (Image: House of Commons)
Mrs Cooper and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have vowed to stop the flow of migrants by tackling international people smuggling gangs and cooperating with other countries, but there is no sign of any progress as yet.
In fact, it appears to have worsened last week it emerged that the number of people who have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year has exceeded the total number who arrived in the whole of 2023, according to the latest Home Office figures.
As of Friday, 29,578 people had made the crossing, compared with 29,437 last year.
One Tory source said: “I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes after giving the Conservatives such a tough time over the Channel crossings and then having to sit in the same hot seat trying to explain why things have got worse. She should be due for a roasting.
“My only fear is that with so many Labour MPs on the committee they may go too easy on her.”
Sir John Hayes (Image: PA)
Sir John Hayes, Tory MP for South Holland and The Deepings, said: “Labour was highly critical of our attempts to deal with the Channel crossings crisis, but they chose to abandon the Rwanda plan.
“So the big question for the Home Secretary is to ask what additional measures she is going to put in place.
After abandoning Rwanda, it is a straightforward question.
“We already know the importance of dealing with the people smugglers and cooperating with other countries, but what steps will there be to arrest any new arrivals and to process their asylum claims elsewhere to the UK to create a deterrent. The people smugglers used to say ‘once you get to Britain you will never have to leave’ and with Rwanda gone they can now say this again.”
Diana Johnson, now Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention, took over from Ms Cooper as chair of the committee until it was dissolved before the General Election in July.
She is also likely to be called to give evidence before the committee on crime and policing matters.
A source said that it was hoped both Ms Cooper and Ms Johnson would give evidence before Christmas, but a timetable has yet to be confirmed.
The Labour Party said it was an issue for the Home Office, which was approached for comment.
