Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed the necessity for a “new deterrent” to discourage small boats crossings within the Channel, Downing Road has mentioned.
The prime minister met Mr Macron this afternoon as a part of the French president’s state go to to the UK, which started on Tuesday.
Excessive up the agenda for the 2 leaders is the necessity to deal with small boat crossings within the Channel, which Mr Macron mentioned yesterday was a “burden” for each the UK and France.
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The small boats disaster is a urgent difficulty for the prime minister, on condition that greater than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK within the first six months of this 12 months – an increase of virtually 50% on the quantity crossing in 2024.
Sir Keir is hoping he can attain a deal for a one-in one-out return treaty with France, forward of the UK-France summit on Thursday, which is able to contain ministerial groups from each nations.
The deal would see these crossing the Channel illegally despatched again to France in change for Britain taking in any asylum seeker with a household connection within the UK.
Nevertheless, it’s understood the deal continues to be within the stability, with some EU international locations sad about France and the UK agreeing on a bilateral deal.
An announcement from Downing Road mentioned: “The prime minister met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Downing Road this afternoon.
“They reflected on the state visit of the president so far, agreeing that it had been an important representation of the deep ties between our two countries.
“Shifting on to debate joint working, they shared their need to deepen our partnership additional – from joint management in help of Ukraine to strengthening our defence collaboration and rising bilateral commerce and funding.”
It added: “The leaders agreed tackling the specter of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared precedence that requires shared options.
“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.
“The 2 leaders agreed on the necessity to go additional and make progress on new and revolutionary options, together with a brand new deterrent to interrupt the enterprise mannequin of those gangs.”
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, seized on the statement to criticise Labour for scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, which the Tories claim would have sent asylum seekers “getting into the UK illegally” to Rwanda.
He said in an online post: “We had a deterrent able to go, the place each single unlawful immigrant arriving over the Channel can be despatched to Rwanda.
“But Starmer cancelled this before it had a chance to start.
“Now, a 12 months later, he is realised he made a large mistake. That is why numbers have surged and this 12 months thus far has been the worst in historical past for unlawful channel crossings.
“Starmer is weak and incompetent and he’s lost control of our borders.”
