Sir Keir Starmer has "more to do" to deal with the Channel crossing crisis, a Labour Minister has admitted.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander faced a grilling from GB News's Camilla Tominey over Sir Keir Starmer's deal with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Starmer confirmed his migrant returns deal with the French, which will see approximately 50 illegal migrants a week returned to France in exchange for "legitimate" asylum seekers.
Speaking to the People's Channel about the deal, the Transport Secretary was pressed on the number of migrants being returned per week, as host Camilla Tominey stressed that it is merely a "drop in the ocean".
Camilla Tominey grilled Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander on the confirmed migrant returns deal with France
GB News
Camilla told Alexander: "This deal will, in fact, be the equivalent of turning back less than one full boat of migrants a week. The average number of migrants in a boat is about 64, and this will return just 50 per week. It's just a drop in the ocean, isn't it?"
Alexander responded: "It's really important that we've got an international agreement with France, because previous Governments, Conservative Governments, failed to do this, and the only way we're going to solve this problem is by working with the French authorities.
"This is a pilot scheme, and we're keen to see the scheme ramp up. If it's successful, we're also working with the French authorities on making sure that they can take action in the shallow waters off the coast of France to be able to stop small boats from reaching our shores in the first place."
Alexander claimed that since Labour came to power, approximately "12,000 Channel crossings" have been prevented through cooperation with France.
However, Alexander admitted there is "more to do" to reduce the record number of migrants coming to Britain illegally.
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The 'one in, one out' deal, announced on Thursday, allows Britain to deport some small boat arrivals to France whilst accepting migrants with UK family connections in returnPAShe told GB News: "We have by working with France prevented about 12,000 channel crossings since we came to power, but there's more to do. Your viewers may have seen some of the footage of the French authorities puncturing the dinghies in the shallow waters a couple of weeks ago.
"The gangs who were smuggling people across the Channel have changed their tactics, and it's appropriate that the French authorities change their tactics too."
Hitting back at Alexander, Camilla stated: "Puncturing dinghies is surely the least the French can do, not least because they've trousered £500million worth of UK taxpayers cash.
"There's footage today showing that there are a load of migrants disappearing over a hill, while police in Calais take selfies of the dinghy that they have punctured, and not chasing after those who have tried to enter our country illegally."
Camilla Tominey told Alexander that the returns figures are just a 'drop in the ocean' compared to the record number of crossings
GB News
Alexander added: "We're going to work with the French authorities in a whole manner of different ways to tackle this problem. What the agreement with the French government does is it breaks the business model of these smuggling gangs.
"These are very sophisticated criminal gangs operating across multiple jurisdictions. That's why it's so important that in the last year, we have made arrests in places like France and Germany as well as in England and Wales."
She concluded: "Just to reassure your viewers, around 30,000 people have been removed from the UK who don't have a right to be here, don't have any permission to be in the country, and that's significantly up on the removals that took place under the last Government.
"We're taking action on a whole variety of fronts, working with our international partners, setting up the new Border Security Command and giving them counter-terrorism style powers to deal with the people that are profiteering from this trade in human beings."