Keir Starmer has lashed out at Nigel Farage, branding small boats crossing the Channel as ‘Brexit boats’ and saying the Reform leader was wrong to say leaving the EU would not affect migration
Keir Starmer has branded small boats as “Farage boats” as he ramped up his attacks on the Reform leader.
The Prime Minister said the UK is having to recover lost ground as he lashed out at Mr Farage’s Brexit pledges. In an interview with GB News, Mr Starmer said the Reform leader had been “wrong” to claim during the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016 that leaving the EU would make no difference to migration policy.
He said: “We’ve now done that, but now we need to ramp that up. I would gently point out to Nigel Farage and others that before we left the EU, we had a returns agreement with every country in the EU and he told the country it would make no difference if we left. He was wrong about that.
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“These are Farage boats, in many senses, that are coming across the Channel.” It comes after a similar call for small boats to be referred to as Brexit boats was made at the Lib Dem conference last week.
Critics argue that losing a returns agreement with Europe played into the hands of smuggling gangs. French President Emmanuel Macron said in the summer that Brexit had impacted Britain’s ability to remove people and was encouraging crossings.
Under the Dublin Convention – which applies in the EU – there is a provision to return asylum seekers to the first member state they arrived in. No alternative arrangement was reached when the UK left the bloc.
In the summer the Government reached a ‘one-in-one-out’ deal with France. This has seen small boat arrivals detained and deported. In exchange people with a legitimate claim to come to the UK will be allowed to come in their place.
Ministers argue this will discourage people making the dangerous journey. The PM acknowledged the returns agreement had only seen small numbers deported, but said it had been important to prove the policy worked.
Labour has stepped up its attacks on Mr Farage in recent days, with ministers including Mr Starmer branding Reform’s plan to rip up indefinite leave to remain for people already in the UK as “racist”.
But Mr Starmer said Mr Farage himself and his supporters are not racist. Speaking with Sky’s Beth Rigby, he said he did not believe Mr Farage was racist. He said: “No, nor do I think Reform voters are racist.
“They’re concerned about things like our borders, they’re frustrated about the pace of change. I’m not for a moment suggesting that they are racist.”
He insisted he had been talking about a “particular policy”, claiming Reform’s plans would see migrants who live in the UK lawfully deported, saying “that to me would tear our country apart”.
The Labour leader, who described Mr Farage as a “formidable politician”, declined to say whether he believed his opponent was courting racists with the policy, but said minorities in the UK felt a “shiver down their throat”.
In an interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC, Mr Starmer rejected the Reform leader’s claim that his attack “will incite and encourage the radical left” and threaten the safety of Reform members. Asked if he had put his political opponent at risk, the PM said: “No, that’s not the case.”
Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Farage said his opinion of the PM had changed. “We might disagree on our worldview, but until this weekend I believed he was a reasonable human being,” he said.
“Now I’m shocked at his behaviour. I hope that when he wakes up this morning, he feels ashamed of what he has done to British politics over the past few days.”
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