A judge made the “wrong decision” in letting a family from Gaza settle in the UK under a Ukrainian refugee scheme, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The prime minister said the government was working to close a “loophole” that led to the specific case, blaming the legal framework in place under the Conservatives.
It emerged on Wednesday that a Palestinian family of six that fled Gaza had been granted the right to live in the UK following an appeal – after they applied to enter the country through a Ukrainian refugee scheme.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch raised the case at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), saying: “This decision is completely wrong. It cannot be allowed to stand. Is the government planning to appeal on any points of law, and if so, which ones?”.
Sir Keir replied: “Let me be clear. I do not agree with the decisions. She’s right.”
However, he said Ms Badenoch had not “done her homework”, claiming “the decision in question was taken under the last government, according to the legal framework of the last government”.
He added that the Home Office was looking at the details of the case so it doesn’t happen again.
He said: “It should be parliament that makes the rules on immigration. It should be the government that makes the policy. That is the principle.
“And the Home Secretary is already looking up the legal loophole, which we need to close in this particular case.”
The case involved a mother, father and their four children who were displaced after their home was destroyed by an airstrike in the Israel-Hamas war.
They applied for entry to the UK using the Ukraine Family Scheme to join the father’s brother, who had lived in the county since 2007 and was a British citizen.
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The Ukraine Family Scheme allows those fleeing the Russian invasion to join relatives already living in Britain, but there is no such scheme for Palestinian refugees.
The family’s application was refused in May last year and then again in September following an appeal.
However, they were subsequently granted the right to live in the UK after upper tribunal judges allowed a further appeal, on the grounds of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which protects the right to family life.
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Judge Hugo Norton-Taylor said there were “compelling” and “exceptional” circumstances in the case, including that the security and humanitarian situation in Gaza remained “exceptionally dangerous” and “dire”.
Ms Badenoch pressed Sir Keir to appeal the decision, bring forward new legislation or amend existing proposals going through the Commons, suggesting the case sets a precedent for “millions of people all around the world in terrible situations” to come to the UK.
Sir Keir said that was not necessary but did not elaborate on what loophole would be closed, or when.
The PM’s spokesperson also would not be drawn on the specifics, saying Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was “looking at plans to tighten application rules in cases like this” and proposals would be brought forward “in the next few weeks”.
