Starmer’s migrant plan is even worse than the Tories’

Labour’s long-awaited approach to stopping the Channel boats is so pusillanimous that it ought to be a political gamechanger for the Conservatives. But it probably won’t be.

As Sir Keir Starmer outlines in various newspapers today, an administration led by him will abandon the Rwanda removals plan and get rid of the Illegal Migration Act which puts in place a bar against people who have arrived illegally claiming asylum. Instead, he will enter talks with the EU about the UK taking a percentage of the ever-increasing flow of irregular migrants over its southern and eastern borders.

As a quid pro quo, he hopes that EU nations, especially France – whose president he is scheduled to meet very soon – will agree to take back those seeking highly visible illegal entry to the UK via Channel dinghies.

The money saved by scrapping Rwanda will then be used to fund a bigger police ‘crackdown’ here and in continental Europe designed to smash the business model of the trafficking gangs (copyright all politicians everywhere).