The EU has ruled out a deal which would allow Channel migrants to be sent back to France, according to reports.
Leaked documents, reported by the Daily Mail, indicate the refusal came from one of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s most trusted aides.
German politician Bjoern Siebert – who is Mrs von der Leyen’s head of cabinet – told senior British officials that Brussels will refuse to consider signing a post-Brexit returns agreement, according to the newspaper.
Mr Siebert reportedly rejected the deal at a face-to-face meeting with the Cabinet Office’s National Security Adviser Sir Tim Barrow earlier this year.
An internal UK Government memo says of the EU official: “He stressed that the Commission is not open to a UK-EU readmissions agreement.”
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