A former Border Force boss has launched a scathing attack on Keir Starmer’s plans to strike a new migrant deal with the EU saying he is “living on another planet” if he thinks it will happen.
Sir Keir’s first migration proposals emerged last night, with Labour pledging to take in more migrants from the EU in return for a new borders deal with Brussels.
This comes despite the EU already rejecting a returns agreement with the Government as Labour believes they can do a deal on the grounds of offering to be more generous in accepting Britain’s fair share of migrants.
And now former Border Force boss Kevin Saunders has slammed the prospect of it happening to host Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk TV this morning (Monday, September 18.)
Julia said: “What did you make of such as we know the details of Keir Starmer’s plan to do a deal with the EU and make nicey nicey with his bromance partner Emmanuel Macron but it won’t involve us taking any quota of migrants from the EU.”
Under the plans Labour would scrap the current Rwanda deportation deal and use the cash to funnel around £160million into the National Crime Agency.
Both Sir Keir and shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper arrived in the Hague yesterday evening for talks with Europe.
Mr Saunders was scathing in his criticism of the Labour leader.
He said: “He’s got more chance of plaiting fog.
“There’s just no way on God’s earth that he’s going to do a deal with the EU.”
The pair discussed the huge numbers of migrants arriving on the Italian Island of Lampedusa, which has declared a state of emergency.
The tiny island off Sicily has been engulfed with thousands of migrants in 48 hours which has more than doubled its population.
Mr Saunders said: “Italy has taken 123,000 this year and the UK have taken 20 – 22,000, something like that, so realistically the numbers don’t add up.
“And there’s no way the Europeans are going to say to Keir Starmer ‘you good old boy, we’ll do you a deal while we’re taking those numbers’ so he’s not living on the same planet as the rest of us.”
He added: “Macron has already said to the Prime Minister it’s not up to France to negotiate a returns agreement, it’s up to the EU – which is a very nice side step for Macron because he’s said ‘I’m a nice guy’.”
Meanwhile the Tories have also launched a blistering attack on the Labour leader’s new proposals warning it will result in as many as 100,000 new migrants entering Britain every single year.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said their plan is a “recipe for even more illegal migration”.
He said: “If they’re not campaigning to allow illegal migrants to stay, Labour are lobbying for even greater incentives for migrants to come here illegally from the safety of France.”
“The truth is Labour are totally unprepared to make the tough, but necessary decisions to stop the boats.
“They treat the valid concerns of the British public with utter disdain.”
The figures being pushed by the Tories this morning come from a Council of the EU document, published in June this year, around the proposal for regulating asylum and migration management.
Clause 31 of the document says that distribution of migrants within an EU sharing arrangement, like Sir Keir wants to enter, would be based “on the size of the population and the economy of the Member State”.
