Protecting our borders

An important part of my job is to chair the combined Conservative group at the Council of Europe. The Council has no connection to the European Parliament, but in fact brings in a much wider range of Parliamentarians from countries including Russia. For this reason alone it is a very important forum for exchanging views. This week I was in Strasbourg for an important meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly. I spoke (see picture) to introduce my report on border controls which was debated in full during the session.