We'll get onto that in just a second. Just that COP situation, we're just hearing that that deal has been approved. The Climate Minister, Graham Stewart, was flown back from COP28 for yesterday's vote. Is saving the Prime Minister's skin more important than saving.

The planet? Well, there was a minister over at COP. There's been a minister at COP throughout the senior level week that we've seen. The foreign secretary has been there, the Home Secretary. Sorry, not the Home Secretary. The have been there, Prime Minister has been there, other ministers are there. There's a week different job. I know, I'm still getting used to that. So we've had ministers there throughout and there was a minister there negotiating on the.

Half of the reason. But this guy was flown back, wasn't he, for the vote?

But we have more than one minister in government for a reason because.

We are- Would have stayed there otherwise if there hadn't been this vote?

Well, I don't know, but the point is there was the vote and it was an important vote, and the whole point in having a team of ministers is that different ministers are able to represent the government. We had senior ministerial level engagement. We had a senior minister involved in the negotiations and we also had a successful night when it came to the vote last night as well. We have to do more than one thing at a time. That's what government is.

All about. Okay, when will the UK stop using fossil fuels?

Well, look, we are committed to net zero by 2050. Apologies. We are leading.

The pack. I was going to help you out then.

We are leading the pack. We are leading the pack on the reduction of carbon emissions. We've got the fastest reduction carbon emissions.

When are we going to stop using.

Fossil fuels? Well, look, it's not possible to say completely, but as I say, we are committed to net zero. We're the first country in the world to legislate for that. We are well ahead of the pack in terms of carbon reductions in terms of things like electric vehicle ownership. I think we're going to stop using fossil fuels. Well, I've just said, Kay, I can't give a perfect prediction, but the point is we are leading the way on these things.

Okay. As it turns out, Graham Stewart wasn't needed for the vote last night because he won with a majority of 44. One Tory rebel in the papers this morning saying, This bill has been allowed to live another day, but without amendments, it will be killed next month. It's now up to the government to decide what it wants to do.

What do you want to do? Well, the government's position on this is absolutely clear. We want to build it works. We want a bill that's effective. We want a bill that gets flights to Rwanda as part of a deterrent package to break the business model of people smugglers and to stop the boats. That's what we want to do. We have said, I have said and have demonstrated that I'm more than happy to talk to my colleagues. I've had numerous meetings from the week that I was appointed. On the Wednesday when the judgment came down, I had a meeting in my office open to all my conservative colleagues to discuss this. I've had a series of meetings since. We, of course, are more than willing to listen to good faith amendments that are designed to make the bill better, keep it within the bounds of international law, keep it in a state that the Rwandans are happy to work with and make it effective. What we will always oppose, as we did last night, is wrecking amendments like we saw from Kierr Starmer because the Labor Party don't want this to work. Indeed, they said even if it does work- I thought the Tories don't want it to work.

No, this is absolutely wrong. The conservative Party is united on the desire to get this right and to stop the boats. The Labor Party's position is to try and wreck it. They have said even if it were working, they would still stop it.

I'll put it to them when they're here. Let's talk about you guys.

Let's talk about what their policies are because I listened very carefully and there was a vacuum.

Thanks very much for that, Home Secretary. I'll decide what I'm asking them. This has ruined the Prime Minister's Christmas. I'm picturing Marc-François as the Grinch. Is it going to ruin your Christmas as well?

Not at all. No, we are very pleased that we got this through second reading. We got it through second reading with a good majority. They're going to kill it. The point of a passage of a bill is that ideas, amendments, suggestions are fed into the system. That is what the process is about. As I've said, this bill needs to work. It needs to be a bill that the Rwandans, who are our partners in this, are happy with, and it needs to be legal, needs to have a respectable legal argument. You don't think I'm head of a pill. No, I'm not. This is key. This is absolutely key because amendments which support those three principles, of course, we will listen to. But things like we saw last night, attempts last night by the Labor Party to put-.

We're not talking.

About the Labor Party, we're talking about your party. No, we're talking about the parliamentary process.

Mark Francois came.

Out and said- We're talking about.

The parliamentary process. Yeah, we are. You were so worried about it, you brought somebody back from COP. Mark Francois and his band of men and women are going to kill it next year.

No, look, that's your assertion. I don't agree. The point is.

I have- Even you said it's not the be-all and-end-do-it.

The point I said is that it is part of but not the only part, of a range of measures that we are taking. That is why small boats arrivals are down by a third coming to the UK whilst they are up by at least a third across the rest of Europe because of the actions that we're taking. We're taking a range of actions. Rwanda is one of those actions that we are taking. We are determined to stop the boats, unlike the Labor Party who put forward a wrecking amendment. No, because-.

Let's worry about the Labor Party when I'm talking to them. I want you to know what your policies are. Did you know that you, Gov, have done a poll? Only 1% of voters think this plan will work.

Well, I'd like to prove them wrong. I'd like to prove the 99%, if that is the case, and I've not seen that. My job is to demonstrate that this will work as part of an overall plan, which is.

Already working. When are the planes taking off?

Well, look, we've got to get this bill through the House of Commons and the House of Lords. That will take some time. There's already preparations that we are- I thought it was an emergency bill. Yes, but the point is we still respect, just as we respected the law boards, their law chips in the Supreme Court when they handed down their judgment, we respected it, we acted upon it, we respect the parliamentary process. We're going to move quickly, but we're going to make sure we get this right. We want to get flights off next year. Ideally, in the spring, I think is a credible timescale.

They'll.

Go before the next election. They'll go as soon as we can get them. We're not.

Setting- Also, the election might be before spring.

No, what we're saying is we are going to work as quickly as we can. We're not waiting for some arbitrary point in time. We are working as quickly as we can because we want this deterrent to take effect as quickly as possible.

Mark Francis, I'm going to quote him to you.

He seems to be your.

Favorite person. -he's not my favorite person. I bet he's not yours either, is he? -you're quoting him a lot. Well, he stands out there and he's pain in the rear end for you guys at the moment. -he says... -well, your words, not mine. Yes, indeed. Our objection was that we don't believe, as it's currently drafted, the bill is firm enough and to ensure the flights will take off to Rwanda. That's him being nice. That's him abstaining.

Yeah, look, genuinely. I'll talk to Mark and I'll talk to others, of course, to understand their thinking on this and try and harvest their ideas to make things better. But I can't see if someone's got a concern that the bill might not be as strong as they would like, killing the bill doesn't strike me as the best way of doing that, because if the bill isn't on the statute books, it can't possibly succeed. So if your concern is it might not succeed, so I'm going to prevent it even existing, that doesn't address that concern. What I want to do is work with Mark, work with others to make sure the bill is legal, is strong.

And is effective. Almost out of time. Talk to me about your new strategy to tackle criminal gangs.

Yes, well, look, thank you about that. Serious organized crime is a real issue. They're responsible for something in excess of £47 billion a year. They target the vulnerable through online fraud. They're responsible for drugs on our streets. If we are going to make our streets safer and we are determined to do that, we are going to tackle serious organized crime. We put out a strategy today. It builds on the work that we're already doing, both in terms of online harms. We're working with the big tech companies to tackle that, county lines. We're already working on that. But this is a commitment to go even further still to prevent those drug dealers, to prevent those people smugglers, to prevent those online fraudsters. It is an absolute priority for that and that's why our strategy sets out.

How much are you missing your old job.

I find this job invigorating. It's an adrenaline rush. It is an amazing job. I loved being foreign secretary. You know that. I do. But I am absolutely loving this job.

Not least for meeting Rufus Suell. I did.

Meet Rufus Suell, and he's very cool.

As are you. Secretary, it's good to see you. Thanks very much. Thank you. Nice to see you. Let's take you straight to COP28. Here we go. President Sulton Al-Jaba, speaking together. We have set the world in the right direction. He says we have given the world a robust plan to keep one and a half degrees within reach.