Starmer’s migrant deal ‘hangs in balance’ after EU row
Mr Macron’s trip will be the first state visit hosted at Windsor Castle in more than a decade, and the first of the King’s reign.
A state banquet on Tuesday will see the King and the French president both deliver speeches, which customarily praise their respective countries and speak of the past relationship and the future.
Mr Macron will also visit the Palace of Westminster, where he will address parliamentarians in the Royal Gallery and meet opposition leaders at Lancaster House.
On Wednesday, he and wife Brigitte will join Sir Keir and Lady Starmer for lunch at Downing Street ahead of the UK-France summit at Number 10 on Thursday.
Starmer’s failure is endangering us all
By Chris Philp MP, shadow home secretary
When Keir Starmer meets Emmanuel Macron this week, Starmer plans to claim their warm words will stop illegal immigrants from flooding across the channel. In truth, Starmer’s cosy chat will make no difference whatsoever.
Starmer has tried similar con tricks before. He previously told us that he would “smash the gangs”. And what then happened? Illegal immigration surged and 2025 so far has been the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the channel. Well over 40,000 illegal immigrants have arrived since the general election – over 40% up on a year previously.
Starmer has completely lost control of our borders. He cannot stop or control who comes in. We now know that the nationalities arriving are 24 times more likely to end up in prison than UK citizens. The clear majority of those crossing are single young men – and Afghan males, for example, are 22 times more likely to commit rape or sexual assault. Labour’s loss of border control is endangering the public, and especially women and girls.
Meanwhile, we have paid France nearly half a billion pounds to stop this madness. But we’ve all seen the photos of French police standing by while the illegal immigrants embark. The French authorities stop few migrants on the beaches and none at all at sea. There is no sense of mission or urgency. The French government was even quick to make clear that the migrant boat slashed by French police a few days ago was only a one-off.
There is a way to fix this
This all stands in stark contrast to Belgium. The Belgians do properly intercept on the beaches and at sea, and as a result, embarkations from Belgian shores dropped by over 90 per cent. This does actually serve Belgian – and would serve French – interests. If there was no point in attempting a crossing because it would never succeed then the illegal immigrants would not bother to congregate around Calais and Dunkirk in squalid camps facilitated by dangerous people smugglers.
It seems very unlikely that any tweaks to French policy near the shore will make any real difference. And press reports suggest the French government is not keen on the idea of a comprehensive returns agreement, whereby all illegal immigrants arriving here would be sent back to France in exchange for a flow the other way.
Nor will law enforcement alone against gangs work, as we have already seen and as the National Crime Agency warned – if one gang is shut down, another just pops up.
Thankfully, there is a way to fix this. About ten years ago Australia completely ended a boats problem very similar to ours. They achieved that using a 100 per cent removals deterrent – so every single illegal immigrant arriving by sea was removed. In the case of Australia, they used an island called Nauru. It doesn’t matter where people are removed to – the point is that no one crossing was allowed to stay on Australian soil. Within a matter of months, illegal immigrants realised there was no point attempting the crossing and so they stopped even trying. Australia went from seeing around 50,000 illegal maritime arrivals a year to zero in a matter of just a few months.
Labour doesn’t seem to care
When I proposed a removals deterrent to Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, in Parliament, she wouldn’t even answer my question. It is clear she has no intention of removing all illegal immigrants and there is no prospect that Mr Macron will agree to take back all the illegal immigrants either – even if we accept some from France in return.
By contrast, the Conservatives’ deportation Bill requires the removal of every illegal immigrant to their country of origin if safe or a third country such as Rwanda if not – without judicial interference. Our Bill disapplied the Human Rights Act for immigration matters while we were at it. This is the only way to end the crossings – but Labour voted against it. They don’t seem to care that our border is open and that potentially dangerous young men are able to enter at will.
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