Small boats crisis risking community cohesion, Kemi Badenoch claims
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Glasgow Times
an hour ago
- Glasgow Times
First migrants detained under ‘one in, one out' deal as PM vows to secure border
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government was prepared to defend itself against legal challenges if migrants seek to avoid being sent back across the English Channel. The migrants detained were among those who risked the Channel crossing on Wednesday, the day the pilot scheme began operating. Some 155 people were detected making the crossing on Wednesday in two boats, taking the total for the year to 25,591, 45% higher than at the same point last year and 70% above this stage in 2023. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: 'We have detained the first illegal migrants under our new deal before returning them to France. No gimmicks, just results. 'If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back. When I say I will stop at nothing to secure our borders, I mean it.' The pilot scheme was set up as part of a deal announced by the Prime Minister and French president Mr Macron during his state visit to the UK in July. UK officials aim to make referrals for returns to France within three days of a migrant's arrival by small boat while French authorities will respond within 14 days. This is in exchange for an approved asylum seeker in France to be brought to the UK under a safe route. No figures have been confirmed for how many migrants will be sent back, although reports from France have suggested it could be around 50 a week, a small fraction of the numbers making the crossing in small boats. The Home Secretary said: 'The pilot has now begun, so the first migrants who have arrived on the small boats are now in detention. We will then swiftly make the referrals to France and that process will now start to be able to return people to France. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans for the pilot scheme in July (Leon Neal/PA) 'It's the beginning of the pilot and it will build as well over time, but we're also clear that France is a safe country, so we will robustly defend against any legal challenge that people try. 'We do expect for people to start being returned in a matter of weeks.' The Home Office is expected to launch a campaign in the coming days to make migrants in northern France and elsewhere aware of the new treaty. Ms Cooper added: 'Criminal gangs have spent seven years embedding themselves along our border and it will take time to unravel them, but these detentions are an important step towards undermining their business model and unravelling the false promises they make.' The Home Secretary has acknowledged the accord is not a 'silver bullet' to stop small boat crossings, which are running at record levels so far in 2025. But the Government hopes it will be a turning point as migrants will be sent back across the Channel for the first time. The first small boat migrants have been detained under our landmark UK-France returns deal. This is what happens next 👇 — Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) August 7, 2025 The process for asylum seekers to come to the UK under the 'one in, one out' pilot scheme has also been launched, with adults and families in France able to express an interest in coming to the UK through an online platform set up by the Home Office. They will have to meet suitability criteria, a standard visa application process and security checks. If accepted, they would be given three months in the UK to claim asylum or apply for a visa, and would be subject to the same rules for all asylum seekers not allowed to work, study or have access to benefits. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said just a 'token handful' of migrants had been detained and suggested the pilot scheme would fail. He said: 'Keir Starmer's promise last year to 'smash the gangs' has turned out to be nothing more than a gimmick that didn't work, and this is just the same. 'They are detaining a token handful of arrivals and in return we accept unvetted migrants from France. The whole thing is riddled with loopholes, opt-outs and legal escape routes that will make removals near-impossible.'
Powys County Times
2 hours ago
- Powys County Times
First migrants detained under ‘one in, one out' deal as PM vows to secure border
The first small boat migrants have been detained under the UK's new 'one in, one out' deal with Emmanuel Macron and could be sent back to France within weeks. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government was prepared to defend itself against legal challenges if migrants seek to avoid being sent back across the English Channel. The migrants detained were among those who risked the Channel crossing on Wednesday, the day the pilot scheme began operating. Some 155 people were detected making the crossing on Wednesday in two boats, taking the total for the year to 25,591, 45% higher than at the same point last year and 70% above this stage in 2023. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: 'We have detained the first illegal migrants under our new deal before returning them to France. No gimmicks, just results. 'If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back. When I say I will stop at nothing to secure our borders, I mean it.' The pilot scheme was set up as part of a deal announced by the Prime Minister and French president Mr Macron during his state visit to the UK in July. UK officials aim to make referrals for returns to France within three days of a migrant's arrival by small boat while French authorities will respond within 14 days. This is in exchange for an approved asylum seeker in France to be brought to the UK under a safe route. No figures have been confirmed for how many migrants will be sent back, although reports from France have suggested it could be around 50 a week, a small fraction of the numbers making the crossing in small boats. The Home Secretary said: 'The pilot has now begun, so the first migrants who have arrived on the small boats are now in detention. We will then swiftly make the referrals to France and that process will now start to be able to return people to France. 'It's the beginning of the pilot and it will build as well over time, but we're also clear that France is a safe country, so we will robustly defend against any legal challenge that people try. 'We do expect for people to start being returned in a matter of weeks.' The Home Office is expected to launch a campaign in the coming days to make migrants in northern France and elsewhere aware of the new treaty. Ms Cooper added: 'Criminal gangs have spent seven years embedding themselves along our border and it will take time to unravel them, but these detentions are an important step towards undermining their business model and unravelling the false promises they make.' The Home Secretary has acknowledged the accord is not a 'silver bullet' to stop small boat crossings, which are running at record levels so far in 2025. But the Government hopes it will be a turning point as migrants will be sent back across the Channel for the first time. The first small boat migrants have been detained under our landmark UK-France returns deal. This is what happens next 👇 — Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) August 7, 2025 The process for asylum seekers to come to the UK under the 'one in, one out' pilot scheme has also been launched, with adults and families in France able to express an interest in coming to the UK through an online platform set up by the Home Office. They will have to meet suitability criteria, a standard visa application process and security checks. If accepted, they would be given three months in the UK to claim asylum or apply for a visa, and would be subject to the same rules for all asylum seekers not allowed to work, study or have access to benefits. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said just a 'token handful' of migrants had been detained and suggested the pilot scheme would fail. He said: 'Keir Starmer's promise last year to 'smash the gangs' has turned out to be nothing more than a gimmick that didn't work, and this is just the same. 'They are detaining a token handful of arrivals and in return we accept unvetted migrants from France. The whole thing is riddled with loopholes, opt-outs and legal escape routes that will make removals near-impossible.'
New Statesman
2 hours ago
- New Statesman
The revolution will be TikTokked
Illustration by Marie Montocchio / Ikon Images Why do we say 'pardon my French' when we swear? Some say the expression comes from the time when our ruling class spoke French. A lofty Norman, snooty Plantagenet or indeed a shrugging Angevin would lapse into French mid-conversation, then kittenishly apologise for being oh so helplessly de sang bleu. Common islanders would retort with a homegrown profanity – something about hounds' arses – then mockingly return, 'pardon my French'. Of course you never really know how true such explanations are. But that one tells you something. The lesson is that power must be fluent in the modes of its day. That is why Yvette Cooper cannot simply smash the gangs: she must also break the internet. The Home Secretary made some changes to her media rounds on Tuesday (5 August). She was promoting her 'one in, one out' small-boat deportation treaty with France. As well as speaking to the usual outlets, Cooper took questions from what officials are calling the 'digital lobby'. She answered the TikTok accounts Politics UK, Simple Politics and the Daily Mail's TikTok. Critics have pointed out that it was not quite the performance of a deep-fried digital native. Cooper addressed the camera from her podium in front of two 'Home Office' screens. It was a little old school, a little stiff. But she was wise to get stuck in. The phones are out and all the eyeballs are there. Last month the Times found that students are set to spend 25 years of their lives on their phones. Mobile phone usage has almost tripled over the last decade. Vertical video – TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram reels and whatever Facebook's one is called – is one key medium of this age. Last year the average UK citizen spent 42 hours a month on the app. The other key form is the podcast. Its political necessity is better developed and better recognised. America's most recent election was hailed as the first 'podcast election'. Trump did the circuit, Kamala didn't, Trump won. Politicians unable to perform will be left behind, unheard from, unthought of. As Andrew Marr warned in these pages, 'we should not be calm about this memetic war zone… the political class has to spend more time engaging on Instagram, TikTok and X.' Dominic Cummings says legacy media has roughly zero relevance now. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Are you keenly awaiting the next gig by German-Swiss composer Nikolaus Matthes? Why not? By critical consensus, the man is just as good as Bach and Beethoven. You know why. All great successes ride the crests of their moment's waves. Even Bob Dylan, who seems so instantly eternal, so heroically irrelevant, became immortal by going electric. It has always been necessary to stand on the cutting edge. Fascism famously spread on the radio. The American revolutionaries like Thomas Paine harnessed cheap print to stir popular sentiment with pamphlets. JFK, Thatcher, Reagan and Blair profited from TV. Indeed it is not long since the Labour Party were setting the pace on communications. Alastair Campbell's engineered the media handler archetype that endures today. New Labour also instituted new communications units to push their message beyond the political press. Before that, in opposition, New Labour developed the intimidatingly named Excalibur computer, which produced rapid rebuttals to Tory aspersions. The current Labour government recently unsheathed a new weapon of its own. Former Sun editor David Dinsmore was communications chief. But so far, Nigel Farage is the British politician dominating the new forms. He has more TikTok followers than every other MP added together. The rest of the political class is nervous to make such a plunge. Some worry that short video only permits crass oversimplifications. But podcasts, which are enmeshed with vertical video, allow more elaboration than even 'golden-era' political TV formats. Another fear is that traditional politicians going to the young's party can only be cringe. But Zohran Mamdani, the New York mayoral candidate, seems a promising light in the American left's hopes. And even David Cameron got pretty handy at charming, slick video updates during his stint as foreign secretary. And anyway, if they don't fill the space, someone else will. Jeff Bezos put a note in the Washington Post, after buying the paper, entitled 'The hard truth: Americans don't trust the news media'. He wrote, 'those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion.' You might not like Bezos. Politicians might not like the new mediascape. But you are about as likely to stop using Amazon as voters are to get off TikTok. It is true that the government has signalled a hope of lowering British screen time. But that would be a full-time brief for a designated minister. In the meantime, the rest of them should get with the moment. History will not promote anachronisms. We're not going to start listening to classical music again. Barring a really shocking escalation in our fishy acrimony, we're not returning to a Francophone ruling class. And certainly, we're not putting down our phones. If Cooper's was not a natural on TikTok, she was still right to start trying. But she may never succeed. The new formats do seem better suited to a populist brand of politics. So far none of its left-wing winners, Zohran Mamdani or Zack Polanski, have won without lifting from that style. One thinks of the historian Perry Anderson's assertion that the left can now only win by evolving a 'left populism'. TikTok has not yet changed all our politicians, but it has already changed all of our politics. History will be written by the scrollers. [See also: The Online Safety Act humiliates us all] Related
