Starmer not seeking migrant returns deal with European nations, Foreign Secretary tells LBC
18 July 2024, 08:28
The Prime Minister is not looking for a migrant returns deal with fellow European nations, the Foreign Secretary has told LBC.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The Times newspaper reported that Sir Keir Starmer is expected to push for a new migrants return deal with the EU at a summit to be held in the UK on Thursday.
But speaking to LBC's Tom Swarbrick, David Lammy said the newspaper was "wrong".
“Very good newspaper, I read it every morning, but I don’t recognise that story at all. I’m afraid it’s wrong,” Mr Lammy said.
Pressed on whether the UK would ever strike a migrant returns deal, Mr Lammy said: “We want to talk about migration and our security pact, of course we do.”
He continued: “We’ve increased staff already to Europol, we’ve got our new Border Force command, and you can work in partnership with our European countries.
“There are collaborations going across Europe. Say, for example, the work that Italy and Albania do, it seems to be reducing numbers across the Mediterranean…there’s lots you can do together.”
Read More: Mutiny on the Bibby: Migrants go on hunger strike and protests erupt on ‘hell barge’ Bibby Stockholm
Mr Lammy went on: “You’re pushing me on returns, and I understand why you’re doing that…we have no plans in that area.
“But as I’ve said, we’re not in the negotiating space at this point in time, what we have done is set out our red lines.”
Migration policy campaigner Zoe Gardner on migrants being 'deliberately thrown overboard'
Mr Lammy's comments follows reports that the PM is set to have talks with French president Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit about returning some migrants who make the English Channel crossing in small boats.
This would be in exchange for accepting some child asylum seekers who have family in the UK from the EU, The Times reported, before Mr Lammy shut the reports down. The UK would not be joining the EU asylum quota scheme as part of this deal.
Ahead of the summit, which is being held at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the PM called for action across Europe to tackle the international "people-smuggling webs".
Over 380,000 people are believed to have entered the EU through irregular routes in 2023 - an increase of 17% on the previous year.
Around 41% of those arrivals are believed to have come in small boats across the Central Mediterranean, 26% on land through the Balkans, and 16% coming across the Eastern Mediterranean.
The British government is also bolstering its own efforts to tackle the small boats crisis.
Over 100 staff members at the Home Office, who had been working on the Rwanda scheme that Labour have scrapped, will now work on a "rapid returns unit" to send people with no right to be in the UK back to their home country.
The government will accelerate asylum decisions as part of its response to the small boats crisis.Officials will prioritise people with no right to be in the UK, and those who are most likely to be returned, in a new, fast-tracked asylum enforcement system.
Under the government's plans to respond to the small boats crisis, asylum decisions will be accelerated and, under a new fast-tracked system in the returns and enforcement unit, officials will prioritise those with no right to be in the UK and who have the greatest chance of being returned.
The Prime Minister said: "We cannot let the challenges of the recent past define our relationships of the future.
"That is why European security will be at the forefront of this Government's foreign and defence priorities, and why I am focused on seizing this moment to renew our relationship with Europe.
"The EPC will fire the starting gun on this Government's new approach to Europe, one that will not just benefit us now, but for generations to come, from dismantling the people-smuggling webs trafficking people across Europe, to standing up to Putin's barbaric actions in Ukraine and destabilising activity across Europe."
