Latest news with #ChannelMigrantDeal
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Starmer and Macron race to strike 'one in, one out' Channel migrant deal TODAY… but it would only cover 50 arrivals a week as critics dismiss 'merry go round'
Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are racing to finalise a 'one in, one out' Channel migrant deal at a summit today. The PM is hoping for 'concrete progress' on the crisis as the French president wraps up his three-day State Visit to the UK. The outlines of a pact have been emerging, with Britain returning some small boat arrivals to France, while accepting equal numbers of asylum seekers. Supporters say the idea will deter people from making the perilous crossing, although critics have branded it a 'migrant merry go round'. However, according to details leaked to French media just 50 Channel migrants per week are expected to be returned. That would be just one in 17 of the current level of arrivals, which stands at 44,000 for the year so far. The official readout of a meeting between Sir Keir Mr Macron at No10 yesterday suggested they are focused on the Channel crisis. Downing Street also tried to ease tensions after Mr Macron used a speech to Parliament to complain about 'pull factors' encouraging people to try to cross in the first place. 'The Prime Minister spoke of his Government's toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats,' a spokesman said. Touring broadcast studios this morning, Defence Secretary John Healey dismissed concerns of a blame game between the countries. He told Sky News: 'The discussions are only taking place because over the last year, we've been able to establish with the French a recognition that this is a shared challenge, that they are working together with us, and that's the reason that we've seen increased beach patrols, more drone patrols.' He added: 'As a Government, we're not interested in blame. 'We're interested in taking the action together that can help reduce the number of small boats coming across, the number of lives also being lost in the Channel… 'And we're interested in re-establishing the control of our borders that the previous government lost in the recent years.' Both Mr Macron and Sir Keir aim for 'concrete progress' on the matter at Thursday's summit, No 10 said, as well as in other areas like support for Ukraine. Following the French-UK summit, the two leaders will host a call with coalition of the willing partners, the proposed peacekeeping mission to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine in future. In a sign of close alignment on defence, Britain and France have announced they will buy new supplies of Storm Shadow missiles, which both have loaned to Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia. The two nations will also work closely to develop a successor to the long-range missile, the Ministry of Defence said.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Macron and the EU will never accept Starmer's small boats plan
In yet another episode of the predictable farce, the European Union looks set to torpedo Sir Keir Starmer's much-trumpeted 'Channel migrant deal'. What a surprise. Are we expected to believe that the EU, still stung by Brexit and mired in its own migrant chaos, will generously open its arms to a burden-sharing arrangement with Brexit Britain? The insult is not merely in the failure – it is in the expectation that we would be too dim to notice. That failure is not just a technical one, it is foundational. This is what drives the small boats crisis. It is not the absence of good intentions, nor even resources, but the absence of the one thing that matters: deterrence. No returns, no deterrence. No deterrence, no border. It's the hypocrisy that stuns. Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper used to revel in lambasting Conservative governments for their apparent diplomatic ineptitude. They promised grown-up government, adult conversations, renewed diplomacy. And yet, here we are. Another Franco-British summit looms – a ritualistic farce in which handshakes are exchanged, British taxpayer cash is sent to France, and nothing of substance shifts. We are assured of 'enhanced co-operation,' the sharing of intelligence, joint patrols, aerial surveillance. And then, as night follows day, the boats will come. I've sat in those rooms. I've faced my French counterpart and asked the obvious question: why not intercept the boats on your shores? The French position has been consistent, and it is not subtle: jamais. And that's the part Labour never understood – or worse, pretended not to. The fantasy that Sir Keir would somehow negotiate a miraculous deal with Europe belongs in the same file as his ill-fated 'agreement' with Albanian prime minister Edi Rama in May. Who could forget it? A glossy press conference where Starmer declared that 'return hubs' would be established in Albania to accept asylum seekers from the UK, only for Rama, with diplomatic elegance and devastating clarity, to rule out any such plan. Starmer had brought a press release. Rama brought reality. Neither the French, nor the EU, nor any other European state has any real incentive to help Britain solve the boats crisis. They are dealing with their own migrant influx, their own populist pressures, their own fragile political coalitions. Why would Macron take on more asylum seekers to help the British? To the French electorate, such a deal looks like capitulation. To Brussels, it smacks of Brexit back channels. Which is why the Rwanda scheme was conceptually sound. It introduced the one ingredient that no other policy had dared to: consequence. The deterrent effect, if allowed to function, would have been significant. Because unlike the EU, Rwanda was willing. Under Labour, Britain stands alone. That is the price of Starmer's weakness. The sound bites and press releases may be many. The strong words and the stern brows rehearsed. The millions spent. But the truth is undeniable: Starmer's migrant deal has never been a deal at all. It is a mirage. A diplomatic platitude wrapped in the language of serious government. And as with all such illusions, it reveals a deeper contempt: for the truth, for diplomacy, and for the intelligence of the British public. We deserve better than this. Not just better ideas, but better honesty.
