Softening asylum system ‘could put Farage in No 10’
LORD BLUNKETT has warned that creating safe routes for migrants to come to the UK could put Nigel Farage in Downing Street.
The former home secretary said “the politics is toxic when it comes to migration”, as he warned Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer against a policy of softening the asylum system.
Speaking after the death of at least 27 people in the Channel, he said there was “no silver bullet” to fix the migrant crisis and he argued progress would only be made through increased co-operation between the UK and Europe.
Labour pledged in its 2019 general election manifesto to “establish safe and legal routes for asylum seekers” to come to the UK.
Nick Thomas-symonds, the shadow home secretary, recently spoke of the need to provide “properly managed safe and legal routes”. But Lord Blunkett yesterday warned against making it easier for asylum seekers to reach Britain.
It was put to him in a BBC interview that some on the Labour Left believed the solution to the crisis was to formalise routes across the Channel to allow people to come to the UK.
Told that such an approach would likely not result in a “huge” spike in asylum claims, the Labour peer replied: “Well, the numbers might not be but Nigel Farage might end up being prime minister and that could even be worse than what we have got at the moment.
“The politics is toxic when it comes to migration… we have got something like a third less asylum seekers than the French and vastly lower numbers than the Germans. But that doesn’t stop people actually believing that there is a flood coming in and so what we have got to do is to work with our counterparts in Europe.”
His comments came as Priti Patel, right, urged France to allow Border Force, police officers and even troops to patrol its beaches to help intercept migrants and prevent more deaths after the deaths near Calais on Wednesday. In a phone call with Gérald Darmanin, her French counterpart, she repeated her call for joint Anglofrench patrols on sea and land, and a returns agreement that would allow for Channel migrants to be sent back to France from the UK.
The police officers would be “unwarranted”, without powers of arrest, to avoid conflicts over sovereignty and could be under French command, said Ms Patel.
France has previously rejected offers of joint patrols but Home Office sources said Mr Darmanin had not expressed a view on any specific proposal. Bruno Bonnell, an MP representing Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said: “I think that is something that could probably help the situation, and I would support that.”