Suspend EU fishing deal until France stops Channel migrant crossings, Starmer told

Telegraph

2 days ago

Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to suspend Britain's fishing deal with the EU until France stops migrant Channel crossings.
On Monday, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, will challenge the Government in the Commons to halt the controversial fishing deal until France makes good on its pledge to intervene and stop small boats at sea.
France has committed to changing its laws so that police officers can stop the boats in shallow waters.
They have previously refused to do so and instead shepherded migrants to the middle of the Channel, where they have been rescued by Border Force and RNLI boats.
But France has so far failed to deliver on its promise despite the UK putting up £480 million over three years to fund extra officers and surveillance equipment on the beaches to stop migrants.
On Saturday, French officers were seen standing on the beach taking pictures as a record 1,194 migrants set off and crossed the Channel to be rescued and brought ashore by British vessels.
France stopped just 184 migrants from leaving on Saturday – less than 15 per cent of the total 1,378 who attempted the crossing.
Local media reported that two gendarmes were injured while trying to stop a migrant boat from setting sail from Audinghen, near the Trou du Nez. 'The two gendarmes were stoned by the migrants,' said Marc Sarpaux, the town's mayor.
The 1,194 people who landed on British shores on Saturday brought the total so far this year to 14,811 – the highest ever recorded in the first five months of a year and up 42 per cent on this time last year.
So far this year, France has intercepted just 38 per cent of migrants – down from 45 per cent last year, 46.9 per cent in 2023 and 42.4 per cent in 2022.
'Time for Government to get serious'
Mr Philp told The Telegraph: 'The French are completely failing to stop these illegal immigrants, despite receiving hundreds of millions of pounds from the UK taxpayer to do so. They are also failing to intercept any boats at sea and return them as the Belgians do. It's time for the Government here to get serious about this.
'The 12-year fishing deal the UK Government recently proposed with the EU, which is itself outrageous, should be immediately suspended until the French actually stop all these illegal immigrants, including using interceptions at sea. And if they won't, the fishing deal should be cancelled.
'I'll be putting this to Yvette Cooper [the Home Secretary] in Parliament on Monday. This Government is so weak they surrendered our fishing rights to the French for 12 years while at the same time the French stand by and watch tens of thousands of illegal immigrants flood into the UK. It's time for this madness to end.'
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said the French were 'taking Britain for fools'. He has previously proposed drafting in the marines to pick up migrants and return them to the French beaches.
He told The Telegraph: 'Since 2015 we have pledged and given the best part of £800 million to the French. Yesterday, their officers watched like tourists as over 1,000 young men made the illegal crossing to England.
'We are being taken for fools. We paid them to stop the boats. They only make a half-hearted effort to do so.'
'UK pushing France to deliver on its pledge'
On Sunday, John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said the UK was 'pushing' France to deliver on its pledge to start intercepting the small boats at sea, as he admitted that Britain had 'lost control of its borders'.
Speaking on Sky News, he called Saturday's scenes 'pretty shocking' and blamed France for allowing smugglers to scoop up migrants like a 'taxi' service.
'I think yesterday tells us a really big problem, which is, you've got French police unable to intervene and intercept the boats when they're in shallow waters,' he said. 'That means we saw it. We saw the smugglers launching elsewhere and coming around like a taxi to pick them up.
'Truth is, Britain's lost control of its borders over the last five years, and the last government last year left an asylum system in chaos and record levels of immigration.'
Mr Healey said France had agreed to change the rules so police could intercept boats in the water as well as on shore, but had not yet put that into effect.
'They're not doing it, but for the first time for years, we've got the level of co-operation needed,' he said. 'We've got the agreement that they will change the way they work, and our concentration now is to push them to get that into operation so they can intercept these smugglers and stop these people in the boats, not just on the shore.'
Videos on TikTok showed migrants packed onto small dinghies smiling while making the dangerous crossing.
The crossings come less than three weeks after the Prime Minister published the Government's plans to reduce net migration and toughen the requirements for migrants to work, live and study in the UK.
They also come ahead of a critical by-election in Scotland on Thursday, at which Reform UK is seeking to repeat its success from the local elections in England.