Today we face a clear and present danger from Ebola. A danger against which we must act to protect the people of Great Britain. We must strive to do everything that is possible to stop this disease from entering the UK.
We are already hearing reports that the screening checks aren’t enough and the Border Agency is understaffed and overrun by carrying out these checks. But these checks are only happening at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham and the Eurostar terminal. This isn’t enough to protect the British people.
We need more Border Agency staff to deal with the current Ebola crisis. The government haven’t sufficiently dealt with this issue, just like it has let us down on many issues over the past four and a half years, they have cut the Border Agency down to the barebones and now they’re needed more than ever. They have cut the armed forces and now have started action in Iraq. Once again we see no cohesion from this failed government.
At UKIPs recent conference I laid out many migration policies of which one was to increase Border Agency staff by 2500. This would enable us to have more staff at airports and allow us thoroughly to check people entering our country, while also meaning we can keep queues to a minimum. Implementing these checks at all major airports, to keep our people safe, should always be the number one priority.
Even near the constituency I hope to contest in 2015 there has been an Ebola scare. A nine-year-old boy from Sierra Leone, Kofi Mason-Sesay, who was due to attend a placement at St Simon’s Catholic Primary School in Stockport has had his placement cancelled due to the fears of some parents of the spread of Ebola. These are the precautions we need to take when dealing with something as deadly as this. It is unfortunate he cannot take his place but the students of that school have to be taken into account and their health should not be put at risk.
It’s now becoming clearer than ever that only UKIP will increase border agency staff and do its upmost to protect the citizens of Britain from a potential deadly epidemic on British soil.