Joe Robertson

Latest speeches

1. Immigration and Asylum Bill · House of Commons · 22 October 2026

   • Joe Robertson MP and Minister: child liability and commencement scope

     “Thank you, Mr. Twigg. It's a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I wish to speak very briefly on two of these exemptions, that is an exemption to require someone to make a payment for their asylum support. The two…”

     Watch from 25:51

   • Joe Robertson MP and Minister: child liability and commencement scope

     “I will, yeah. It sounds like what the Minister is saying is that when a child becomes an adult and is still receiving support, they will then be liable for paying for the support they received as a child, and…”

     Watch from 32:09

   • Joe Robertson MP and Minister: child liability and commencement scope

     “Of course. I take the point that it shouldn't be applied retrospectively before while someone was receiving support, but if you take the example of student loans, students take out loans on terms that are then changed in the future.…”

     Watch from 35:27

2. Immigration and Asylum Bill · House of Commons · 20 October 2026

   • Government backbenchers: push for stricter clause 19 language

     “Thank you, Chair. It's a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today. I wish to speak briefly, although the honorable member for Mid Bedfordshire has dealt with it very eloquently, but briefly on the clause 19 stand part and on…”

     Watch from 23:48

   • Minister vs MPs: VAWG, children, ‘no weight’, and ‘serious breach’

     “Surely the minister understands that no weight might be the starting point, it's the end point that's the decision, and that's the issue. A decision maker can have a starting point of no weight and then attach weight and suddenly…”

     Watch from 51:05

   • Joe Robertson: technical critique of new section 117C tests

     “Thank you, Chair. And we are of course dealing with cases involving foreign criminals and others liable to deportation. Now, the issues I have here are broadly twofold. One is around drafting again, and I think there are a number…”

     Watch from 1:22:16

3. Third Delegated Legislation Committee · House of Commons · 19 October 2026

   • Shadow Minister: support, technical issues and four questions

     “Thank you, it's a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr. Huck. The opposition supports both amendments. These schemes provide financial support to people facing serious illness and to families who have lost someone. Many of those affected worked in…”

     Watch from 8:13

4. Immigration and Asylum Bill · House of Commons · 15 October 2026

   • Siân Berry: Safe routes, refugee numbers and final case for rejecting clause 18

     “I thank the honourable member for giving way, and I agree with her there's some toxic rhetoric around this, but not by people on this committee. But does she nevertheless not agree that there is a problem with immigration and…”

     Watch from 52:37

   • Joe Robertson: Concerns over mental illness route under clause 18

     “Thank you, Mr. Twigg. It's a pleasure to serve with you in the chair. I will address clause 18. And I must confess, Chair, I do have a slight tendency to stray, but I'm comforted by the fact that the…”

     Watch from 56:46

   • Minister’s response: Defence of clause 18 and government amendments

     “Can I ask the minister what would happen if somebody is living here, their child is living overseas but with the other parent, that is where they're cohabiting, they're not cohabiting with the parent here, but the parent overseas dies?…”

     Watch from 1:23:13

5. Immigration and Asylum Bill · House of Commons · 15 October 2026

   • Q: Onn: will clause 17 ease entry?

     “Will the Minister give way? I will. Thank you. I thank the Minister for giving way. So as I understand it, the focus of this new provision is to focus on the rights of the person in the UK to…”

     Watch from 7:24

   • Data on potential sponsors and current Article 8 volumes

     “I'm grateful for the minister for giving way. Now she says that her provision around the core cohabiting family member has been restricted by this definition in order to tackle the issue of people coming into this country. Can she…”

     Watch from 20:55

   • Robertson: potential scale of sponsor route and ‘pool’ of applicants

     “Thank you, Mr. Stewart. It's a pleasure to serve with you in the chair. I'm speaking a little earlier than I had expected. I misunderstood the shadow minister. I thought he was just getting started. It turns out that he…”

     Watch from 59:18
   4 more clips in this sitting

6. House of Commons · House of Commons · 15 October 2026

   • Backbench Q&A: Youth work rules and NI incentives

     “Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Jobs and opportunities for young people have dried up over the last two years because the government has made it more expensive to employ them. On the Isle of Wight, it's compounded our pre-existing structural…”

     Watch from 2:11