I spent the day on the Channel just off Calais to see if the Government’s new deal with France is working. It isn’t.
I saw French warships escorting dinghies in the Channel on the very day Labour’s migrant surrender deal was meant to come into effect.
I heard French forces asking for 60 of their life jackets back so that they can facilitate more boat crossings. Facilitating illegal immigration is a criminal offence under section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971. That is surely what is happening here.
Labour’s deal with France is a complete farce. Once again, when Keir Starmer negotiates, Britain loses. He has signed a deal with France, where British taxpayers will be paying to return illegal immigrants to France.
The Labour Government’s treaty provides multiple loopholes for illegal migrants to prevent deportation back to France. Firstly, only adults will be removed, and as the Labour Government are failing to adequately carry out age assessments for Channel immigrants, illegal immigrants can just claim to be under 18 to prevent removal to France.
Secondly, France will not give us any data on the people they are sending to the UK, so we have no idea who they really are.
Even if the migrants have a criminal record in France, we will not know thanks to Labour’s agreement. Their claim that these arrivals will be checked is a complete joke.
I've just seen with my own eyes what the French are up to. Labour's new migrant deal is a farce - Chris Philp | Chris Philp/X
Thirdly, the Labour Government’s treaty says that any migrant who is appealing their decision in the courts cannot be returned to France, and Article 4 of the treaty says that anyone who has made a “clearly unfounded” (made-up) human rights claim does not get sent back to France, so that’s an easy loophole for the lawyers.
Finally, there are no numbers included in the treaty – likely meaning that the numbers being returned to France are very small.
As I have said previously, returning just 50 illegal immigrants a week, and probably less, will make no difference whatsoever.
This amounts to just 6 per cent of illegal arrivals. Allowing 94 per cent to stay in the UK will be no deterrent at all. This is a gimmick which won’t work.
The Rwanda removals deterrent, under which 100 per cent of illegal arrivals would be removed, was ready to go last summer, but Labour cancelled it just days before it was due to start, with no proper replacement plan.
As a result, this year so far has been the worst ever for illegal immigrants crossing the channel, with over 25,000 people crossing. Labour has lost control of our borders.
The Conservatives put forward a Deportation Bill, which Labour voted against. Our Deportation Bill would mean every single illegal immigrant, including all small boat immigrants, and foreign national offenders would be deported.
If their countries of origin do not want to take them back, we would stop issuing visas to these countries until they do.
We will not let anything stand in our way of removing dangerous foreign criminals and illegal immigrants who have no right to be here.
We are also calling on the Labour Government to reject asylum claims from asylum seekers caught illegally working. They should face immediate deportation, either to their country of origin or to a safe third country.
When I visited an asylum hotel in central London, what I saw shocked me – a taxpayer-funded base of operations for an underground courier cartel operating right under the Labour Government’s nose.
Britain has been a soft touch for far too long. Enough is enough. The British people can see that our system is being abused – this has to stop.