Put Navy and drones in Channel to stop boats, says Labour peer
Lord Glasman told the Prime Minister he should 'just turn them back to France' as he set out his proposals to curb the worsening Channel crisis.
His suggestions came after the number of migrants to reach Britain in small boats since Labour came to power last summer hit 50,000 earlier this week.
Lord Glasman is viewed as an important voice within the party and is believed to have the ear of Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir's chief of staff.
Speaking to Tom Swarbrick on LBC, the peer said the current scale of illegal migration was 'completely out of order'.
He said: 'The first thing I'd do is put the Royal Navy in the English Channel to stop the boats.'
Asked where the boats would then go, Lord Glasman replied: 'Just turn them back to France. What is the problem with being in France? France is a country that's signed up to human rights. Why are they leaving France? This is a very big question.
'Then we've got a really serious political problem with France. I think this is all part of the post Brexit agenda. We've got to actually assert our national interests.'
He added that drones could be used to play a message to migrants urging them to turn back.
'Also, very interestingly, [I've] just been to Ukraine. They claim to have drones that can target every boat.
'So we could just send drones out as well and say, please turn back. We are under no obligation whatsoever to take the boat and it's been going on for much too long, and there has to be immediate action on that.'
Sir Keir struck a deal last month with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, which means Britain will detain illegal migrants and send them back to France in return for taking a similar number of asylum seekers.
But the evidence suggests that the 'one in, one out' scheme is already failing, with 50 per cent more migrants crossing the Channel since the deal than in the same period last year.
'The Treasury has outlived its function'
During a wide-ranging phone-in, Lord Glasman – who has emerged as one of the staunchest Labour critics of Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves – also called for the abolition of the Treasury.
He said: 'I actually think the Treasury has outlived its function. I'm in favour of abolishing the Treasury and having an economics ministry inside No 10.
'I think that over this period, certainly starting with Margaret Thatcher, the Treasury has become much too powerful. And the problem with the Treasury is it's all about accounts and it's about the Exchequer.
'And it doesn't understand the long term commitments that you have to make in order to build industry.'
Ms Reeves is widely expected to launch a series of fresh tax raids at her second Budget this autumn to fill a hole in the public finances that may be as high as £50bn.
Her first fiscal package last October raised taxes by a record-breaking £40bn, including an increase in employer's National Insurance and an inheritance tax raid on farmers.
Ties with Trump and Vance
Lord Glasman was the only Labour politician invited to Donald Trump's inauguration in January and said he is 'very' sympathetic to warnings about free speech issued by JD Vance, Mr Trump's vice-president.
At a keynote speech in February, Mr Vance warned Britain that mass migration and the erosion of free speech pose a greater threat than Russia.
Asked if he agreed that the biggest threat to Europe was an influx of 'unvetted foreign migrants', he said: 'I don't know if that's the biggest threat to Europe, but as I've said to you, I consider it as a pretty bad thing.
'He's also said some things about freedom of expression, expression and freedom of speech that I'm quite sympathetic [to].'
A report released by the US state department this week claimed there were 'credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression' under Sir Keir's Government.
Lord Glasman was then pushed to confirm he was sympathetic to Mr Vance's warnings that free speech in the UK was 'in retreat'.
He replied: 'Yeah, very. I think our tradition of liberty is absolutely… In the ancient constitution which we still live with, there's four fundamental liberties.
'One of them is freedom of expression, one of them is freedom of conscience, another one is freedom of religion and the other one is freedom of association.
'Those four are essential to our country and our tradition. That's why I don't think we need the Human Rights Act here.'
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In a post on X, he wrote: We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation. If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades. But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war. Today, coordination with partners has been ongoing throughout the day … We are preparing for Monday's meeting with President Trump, and I am grateful for the invitation. It is important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work. 10.42am CEST 10:42 The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had pushed Russian forces back by about 2km (1.2 miles) on part of the Sumy front in northern Ukraine. There was no immediate comment from Russia, which controls a little over 200 sq km in the region, according to Ukraine's battlefield mapping project DeepState. Updated at 11.35am CEST 10.18am CEST 10:18 US President Donald Trump said after Friday's meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that he wants to bypass a ceasefire and move straight to a permanent peace deal. This is a major shift in policy. Before the summit, Trump demanded Putin agree to an immediate ceasefire or face heavy US sanctions on oil exports. 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Updated at 11.38am CEST 10.06am CEST 10:06 Here is some more detail from the report from my colleagues Edward Helmore and Pjotr Sauer about Trump backing a plan to cede unoccupied Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure an end to the war, with Putin demanding Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for peace: Although Luhansk is almost entirely under Russian control, Ukraine still holds key parts of Donetsk, including the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and heavily fortified positions whose defence has cost tens of thousands of lives. Putin told Trump that in exchange for Donetsk and Luhansk, he would halt further advances and freeze the frontline in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces occupy significant areas. Trump's support for ceding Ukraine's Donbas region (composed of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions), which is rich in mineral resources, including coal and iron ore, to Russia comes as he voiced support for moving straight to a peace deal and not via a ceasefire, which, Trump said in a social media post on Saturday, 'often times do not hold up.' US support for ceding the Donbas to Russia represents a breach with Ukraine and European allies that oppose such a deal. As part of a deal, the US is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Saturday. Trump has threatened economic penalties on countries that buy Russian oil if Moscow refuses a deal and flew US bombers over the Russian leader as he arrived in Alaska. But Ukrainian and European leaders fear that a straight-to-peace deal, skipping over a preliminary ceasefire, gives Moscow an upper hand in talks. 9.44am CEST 09:44 Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia's war on Ukraine. While Washington prepares to welcome Volodymyr Zelenskyy for crunch talks with Donald Trump on Monday, European leaders who make up the so-called 'coalition of the willing', a loose partnership of western countries pledging support for Ukraine, are set to hold a conference call on Sunday to try to protect a peace deal that does not reward Russia for its aggression. The virtual call is being co-chaired by the UK's prime minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. At the Alaska summit on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for ending the war, but offered Trump a freeze along the remaining frontline, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks told the Guardian. Trump reportedly backed the plan to cede unoccupied Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure an end to the war, telling European leaders that he believed a peace deal could be negotiated if Zelenskyy agreed to give up the Donbas region (which is composed of Donetsk and Luhansk). European leaders have repeatedly said that Zelenskyy, who has been sidelined in much of the US-Russian diplomacy to date, must play a greater role in future talks as a lasting peace cannot be achieved without his input. In a statement released on Saturday after the Alaska talks between Trump and Putin ended without any breakthrough, Starmer said in a statement posted to X: President Trump's efforts have brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia's illegal war in Ukraine. His leadership in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended. While progress has been made, the next steps must be further talks involving President Zelenskyy. The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without him. Stay with us as we will be keeping you up to date with the latest political and military developments throughout the day. Updated at 10.05am CEST
