§ 10. Sir Teddy TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in the European Court consideration of the border controls issue initiated by the European Parliament. [7856]
§ Mr. HowardThe oral hearing of the case, originally scheduled for 3 October 1995, has been postponed at the request of the European Parliament. No new date has been set.
§ Sir Teddy TaylorAs the case has meant the publication of three draft directives calling for total removal of border controls—details of which the Home Secretary has—and as it will mean that 18 million foreign nationals, including Algerians in France, Turks in Germany and many illegals, will have open access to the United Kingdom, would the Home Secretary, in the interests of good race relations and preserving our nation, make it abundantly clear that there is simply no way in which the Government would permit such a fundamental change to remove our border controls?
§ Mr. HowardYes. I have made it abundantly clear in the past, and I make it abundantly clear again, that we shall resist those directives, and we shall maintain our frontier controls.