Keir Starmer labels Channel crossings 'Nigel Farage's boats' as PM lashes out at Reform leader over Brexit

Following his speech, in which the Prime Minister accused Reform UK of being the "enemy of national renewal", Sir Keir told the People's Channel: “I would gently point out to Nigel Farage and others that before we left the EU, we had a returns agreement with every country in the EU and he told the country it would make no difference if we left.

"He was wrong about that. These are ‘Farage boats’ coming across the Channel.”

The Prime Minister appears to have been referring to the EU-wide Dublin Convention, which includes a provision to return asylum seekers to the first member state they arrived in.

However, the UK's final few years of participation in the Dublin Convention would indicate that Britain was a net recipient of asylum seekers.

Home Office data revealed that 676 asylum seekers were transferred from Britain in 2016 and 2017, while 1,019 illegal migrants were transferred to the UK over the same period.

The figure comes in stark contrast to the 131 who were transferred into the UK in 2015, when 510 asylum seekers had been transferred out.

Sir Keir's accusation about Mr Farage's role in facilitating Channel crossings also appears to overlook the Reform UK leader's work exposing the migrant crisis during the pandemic.

Mr Farage recorded his first video from the Kent coast in April 2020, warning his viewers that the migrant crisis is worse than anyone thought.

The Brexit stalwart revealed less than a year later that he was contemplating a return to frontline politics as a result of the surge in illegal migration.

However, Sir Keir used his sit-down interview with GB News to warn that Reform UK does not want to stop migrants crossing the Channel.

He said: “When we are trying to deal with our borders, we’re trying to pass the Borders Bill to give more powers to law enforcement to deal with the small boats.

"What did Nigel Farage do? He voted against it. We’ve got a returns deal with France. What does Nigel Farage do? He says he’d rip it up.

"There’s ID cards to stop them working illegally in our economy. He says he’ll reverse that.

"He doesn’t want to fix the problems because if the problem is fixed his reason to exist goes away.”

Sir Keir is hoping to stop migrants arriving via small boats by investing money into the Border Security Command and by striking a "one-in, one-out" returns deal with France.

However, Mr Farage is asking for Sir Keir to go further, pushing for mass deportations and withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.

GB News revealed this weekend that Labour's "one-in, one-out" deal is doing little to deter migrants from crossing the Channel, with the number of arrivals exceeding 7,000 since the deal came into force on August 3.

Following Sir Keir's keynote conference speech, Mr Farage hit back at the Prime Minister over his remarks.

He said: “This is a desperate last throw of the dice from a Prime Minister who is in deep trouble.

"A Prime Minister who can’t even command the support of half of his own party, but, I’m sorry to say, I now believe that he is unfit to be the Prime Minister of our country."

However, Sir Keir also took aim at the Tories over Boris Johnson's handling of legal migration into Britain.

When asked if legal net migration that will come down, the Prime Minister told GB News: “If you look at it, well, we had the Boriswave, didn’t we?

"Immigration went up four-fold under the Conservatives in five, short years. It is unbelievable.

"And we are bringing it down, you’ve seen those numbers come down.

"Of course, it’s right to say that many people come here to contribute to our society but the numbers need to come down and we’re bringing them down.”

Net migration peaked at a record-breaking 906,000 in the year ending June 2023, dropping to 431,000 last year.