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Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Michael Lord): I call Eric Pickles.
Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst): I very much welcome the Home Secretary's robust--
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. I call Eric Pickles.
Mr. Eric Pickles (Brentwood and Ongar): It is a great pleasure for me to follow the Back Bencher of the year.
I should like to associate myself with the comments of my hon. Friends the Members for West Chelmsford (Mr. Burns) and for Epping Forest (Mrs. Laing) and the hon. Member for Harlow (Mr. Rammell). We owe a great debt of gratitude to the staff of Stansted, who have experienced two really important crises in the past few months and handled both very well. The first was the crash over Christmas. Their response has been remarkable.
May I return to the narrow point of who bears the cost? I realise that the Home Secretary will be sympathetic and reasonable--which is wonderful--but, as he said in his statement, this is part of a national contingency, and I do not think that we should rely on him using his discretion. Provision for events such as this should be made as a matter of course, which would relieve much of the current anxiety in Essex.
Mr. Straw:
I am glad that we have solved the problem of which Eric wished to speak. I was perplexed about the possibility that the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) had moved constituencies--[Hon. Members: "Again!"] I believe that the chicken run has been deferred for at least another year.
I know the area represented by the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) nearly as well as that represented by the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mrs. Laing). I know that many people who work at Stansted airport live in the hon. Gentleman's constituency, and that most people in Essex have used the airport's excellent facilities.
Let me return to the issue of cost. I do not want to make a political point, but the structure of police funding has continued under successive Administrations. In the first instance, individual territorial police services provide the facilities; then there is provision for applications to whoever happens to be Home Secretary. I do not think I could make it clearer that I will view applications sympathetically, and the sooner they are submitted to me, the sooner I can make a decision.
Mrs. Alice Mahon (Halifax):
I condemn out of hand the terrible crime of hijacking, and join others in congratulating not just the Essex police, but my right hon. Friend on the way in which a very difficult affair was handled.
My right hon. Friend has difficult decisions to make. When making them, will he keep in mind the odious nature of the Taleban regime, which has eliminated women's rights and murdered and tortured its own citizens on an hourly basis? Before making those decisions, will my right hon. Friend engage in talks with other countries where there are movements opposed to the Taleban--such as Afghans in exile--to establish whether they will take these people, before sending them to certain torture and death?
Mr. Straw:
Any decisions made by me will be made in accordance with the duties imposed on me, and will take account of, among other factors, the circumstances in Afghanistan as they are shown to relate to the individuals seeking asylum, and then the wider circumstances in which those individuals came to apply for asylum.
I think I have made it clear that the issue of removals may relate not to removals to Afghanistan itself, but to neighbouring countries.
Mr. David Maclean (Penrith and The Border):
I thank the Home Secretary for the robust content of his remarks, and also for their robust tone. He may be the first Labour Home Secretary in history who sounds more right wing with each year in the Home Office, rather than the reverse.
Without prejudicing the quasi-judicial position in which he is placed, the Home Secretary gave us the clearest possible hint that the whole thing may have been an outrageous scam. He will have to make tough judgments in the future. Does he accept that he will have the support of not just Conservative Members, but most people in the country, if he brings about legislative changes to ensure that if the country experienced a similar scam in the future, the perpetrators would receive long sentences and the so-called hostages would be given food, water and medical treatment, and then be sent home to their loved ones on the first available plane?
Mr. Straw:
If the right hon. Gentleman will excuse me, on this occasion I shall not accept the bouquet that he has so generously offered me. It is the lot of Home Secretaries to be subject to comment from this side or that, according to the issue, and it is perfectly possible that, when we come to debate the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, the right hon. Gentleman will be saying exactly the opposite.
On legislative change, the provisions of the criminal law are very severe indeed on those who can be proved to have been either directly involved in hijacking or complicit in one way or another in hijacking and other terrorist offences.
There is a wider issue, on the 1951 convention, and I have already offered the House my opinion on that in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mr. Corbett), the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Mr. Jimmy Hood (Clydesdale):
I add my compliments to the police and special forces on their excellent work. However--why Stansted? I have not heard a satisfactory answer to why it was chosen. We have an air force base at Brize Norton, which I should think could have been isolated much more easily and without bringing the problems associated with a hijacking to a commercial airport. Was Brize Norton considered as an alternative for dealing with the hijacking? If not, why not?
Mr. Straw:
I hope that my hon. Friend will excuse me from ventilating too far the reasons why such an airport is appropriate. However, I should say that when air traffic control is told that there is an aircraft in the sky, that people on board are seriously armed with guns, grenades and possibly explosives, and that it wishes to land, there is not a great deal of time to make decisions. Quick decisions have to be made, not least on the basis of contingency arrangements that are put in place. On the basis of such considerations, the plane landed at Stansted.
Mr. Douglas Hogg (Sleaford and North Hykeham):
I should like to raise with the Home Secretary the issue of consequences and penalties. First, on penalties, he has
Secondly, on consequences, may I reinforce the suggestion, which has been made on both sides of the House, that participation in hijacking should be a total prohibition to the granting or obtaining of political asylum, and that that should be made explicit? If it requires a change to an international convention, we should play our part in obtaining that change.
Mr. Straw:
I know the right hon. and learned Gentleman's general views on minimum mandatory sentences. I also certainly would not argue against his proposition that the type of figure that he has in mind would be the least that the public and the House would expect in circumstances in which the courts judge that someone has been seriously involved in hijacking. As there have been very few occasions when people have been sentenced for hijacking, I do not have in mind the type of sentence that has been passed, but I am aware that the sentence may have been more than 10 years in some cases and less in others.
On participation in hijacking, as I told the House, article 1F of the 1951 convention already provides that the asylum application of those who are convicted of, among other things, serious criminal and terrorist offences cannot be entertained. There may be a need for the convention to be amended not only as the right hon. and learned Gentleman suggests, but more widely. We shall certainly consider that.
Mr. Michael Jabez Foster (Hastings and Rye):
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his determination to deal with the matter as expeditiously as justice allows. He offered some succour to the people of Essex in determining where those folk may have to remain in the mean time, but I am sure that he will also have some sympathy for the people of Hastings and Rye, who have 900 asylum seekers in a small part of my constituency that contains only 3,000 local inhabitants. That situation was not made any better by the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe), who visited my constituency last week and made comments that were of no help at all. Will my right hon. Friend assure us that the new powers available under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 that allow for dispersal will be used and that he will take account of areas that already have significant numbers of asylum seekers?
Mr. Straw:
My hon. Friend will know that I am familiar with his constituency because my father lives there. [Interruption.] I think that we have covered the whole of my family this afternoon. I am aware of the pressures on my hon. Friend's constituents and of his concerns on their behalf. The arrangements that we have put in place in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 provide for national dispersal of asylum seekers, not least
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