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Sir Ed Davey would "open the floodgates" to illegal immigration by protecting benefits for those caught working illegally, the Conservatives have warned. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp savaged the Lib Dems after they voted against a government plan to end the support for those working against the law.

Mr Philp said: "The Liberal Democrats want failed asylum seekers who have been caught working illegally to keep their support, they want to let illegal arrivals work, demanding the employment ban be lifted entirely." He added: "Illegal working is widely recognised as the single biggest pull factor to illegal immigration, and the Lib Dems want to open the floodgates." The top Tory warned that Sir Ed "cannot even bring himself to say that someone who has entered this country illegally and then broken the law a second time by working without permission should face any consequence whatsoever".

He told the Express: "Only Conservatives are clear that if you arrive here illegally, you should not have the right to work, and if you do work illegally here, foreign nationals should be deported. The Liberal Democrats disagree, and voters should know that."

This month, Sir Ed's party tried to change a law that would have given asylum seekers who arrived in Britain illegally the right to work.

It follows a 2025 vote at the Liberal Democrat conference in favour of a motion calling on the UK Government to "lift the ban on employment for asylum seekers".

But Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson hit back at the Tories.

He said: "The Conservative Party created the problems that led to dangerous small boat crossings and lumped the taxpayer with a £6million daily hotel bill.

"Chris Philp's only plan now is to give us Brexit 2.0 by pulling the UK out of the ECHR, further smashing the European partnerships we need to create a fair, safe and controlled asylum system."