WATCH NOW: Shadow Work & Pensions Secretary Helen Whately speaks to GB News Breakfast
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GB News witnessed French authorities escorting a migrant boat into British waters this morning
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Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately has declared "zero confidence" in Sir Keir Starmer's ability to secure a migrant deal with France.
Speaking to GB News, Whately said that when the Prime Minister negotiates, "Britain loses".
As French President Emmanuel Macron prepares to meet Starmer for negotiations on the migrant crisis, GB News witnessed a migrant boat being escorted into British waters by French authorities.
Hitting out at the "farcical" operation, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage demanded an "£800million refund" from the French.
Helen Whately has declared 'zero confidence' in Keir Starmer's ability to secure a migrant deal with France
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Criticising Labour's handling of the migrant crisis, Whately told GB News: "We're seeing thousands of people come here under Labour, and we had we had a plan involving a deterrent, which the Government immediately scrapped.
"People who have been saying there was going to be something that was going to make it less attractive to come to the UK, well, now they're coming."
In a direct attack on Starmer, Whately declared: "I have no confidence whatsoever in Keir Starmer's ability to negotiate a good deal with Macron on this.
"Every time we've seen Keir Starmer negotiate, he tends to lose."
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GB News captured the moment a migrant boat was escorted by the French into British waters
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GB News host Dawn Neesom then grilled Whately on the Conservative migration record, asking the Shadow Secretary: "What gives you the right to criticise when you had 14 years?"
Whately responded: "We recognise, of course, that we've made mistakes and we've talked about that, and particularly we were frustrated at how long it was taking for us to put in place our deterrent policy to tackle people coming across the Channel.
"But we're now in opposition, we're under new leadership, and our job as opposition party is indeed to hold the Government to account, to point out their mistakes and to come up with, as we are working on, alternatives."
Warning that the UK is in a "vulnerable position" under Labour ahead of the Autumn Budget, Whately explained: "The UK is in a very vulnerable position, highly likely that we see taxes as a result going up in the autumn and the Chancellor taking us into a doom loop of higher taxes, higher unemployment and higher taxes. Again, that's a disaster.
Whately told GB News that the Tories plan to bring down the welfare bill
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"I'd say the Conservatives are the only party that are pointing out that we cannot do this.
"Reform what to spend more on welfare, Labour want to spend more on welfare, we're the ones saying no, we've got to get it under control."
Outlining how the Tories would bring the welfare bill down, Whately concluded that the party plan to "stop people receiving sickness benefits for common mental health disorder problems".
Whately said: "The announcements we're making today would bring the welfare bill down.
"There's some really substantial areas of potential savings, that we should bring back face to face assessments, as there's been this huge growth in telephone assessments.
"Another area where we know that there will be savings is by stopping people receiving sickness benefits for these common mental health disorder problems, or wellbeing issues like anxiety or mild depression, ADHD, that's been a huge area of growth."