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Keir Starmer faced accusations of ‘gaslighting the British public’ after allegedly making ‘grossly exaggerated’ statements regarding the Government’s recent migrant agreement.
Labour announced it had detained the first small boat migrants under its ‘one in, one out’ returns treaty with France.
Despite the pilot program’s limited scope and the possibility of extended legal disputes, the Prime Minister took to social platforms asserting: ‘If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back.’
Writing on X, he added: ‘No gimmicks, just results.’
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper seemed to amplify the potential effects of her program, stating that ‘every migrant’ would waste their money by attempting to cross by boat.
The Home Office refused to disclose how many Channel migrants had been held yesterday.
However, attempts to return migrants to France are likely to provoke human rights and other legal claims that could postpone removals for extended periods.
The Anglo-French accord is set to expire in ten months, with potential renewal uncertain as the next French presidential election campaign begins to unfold.
Keir Starmer was accused of ‘gaslighting the British public’ after he made ‘grossly exaggerated’ claims over the Government’s new migrant deal yesterday.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also appeared to overstate the likely impact of her scheme, claiming that ‘every migrant’ will be ‘throwing away their money if they get into a small boat’
The first migrants selected to return were seen being detained by British officials yesterday
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘The PM is gaslighting the British public. His tweet is a gross exaggeration of what this paltry scheme will do.
‘We understand that only 6 per cent of illegal arrivals will get removed, meaning 94 per cent will stay.
‘That is no deterrent, and Starmer’s misleading claims won’t fool anyone, least of all the people smugglers who have had a record year under Labour.’
He said the Government’s scheme would ‘get bogged down in an endless legal quagmire’ because ‘any migrants claiming to be under 18, or who make a modern slavery or human rights claim, will not get removed’.
Former Tory Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said the Anglo-French deal was a ‘complete waste of time’.
Waiting to be processed, migrants in grey sweatshirts sit in rows at a Home Office centre in Manston, Kent, yesterday
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought into the Border Force compound in Dover, Kent, on Thursday
‘It’s a fake. It’s a phony, it’s a cheat on the British people,’ he told GB News. ‘It’s a bogus deal, it’s a complete waste of time.’
He said the arrangement for those making human rights claims was an ‘extraordinary loophole that means almost no one can be deported’.
The first Channel migrants to be selected for removal to France were filmed arriving at a detention centre yesterday after being processed at the former RAF Manston air base in Kent.
Video clips released by the Home Office showed men in grey tracksuits disembarking from a van.
Later, up to six men – whose faces are obscured – are seen sitting in a corridor of the removal centre.
They were among 155 who reached Britain on Wednesday, taking the total for the year to 25,591, up 45 per cent on the same point last year.
Those not selected for removal will be taken on to taxpayer-funded asylum hotels.
The Daily Mail understands that pro-migrant groups have already begun informal discussions about launching a joint legal action against Labour’s plan – just as they did against the Conservatives’ Rwanda asylum scheme.
Steve Smith, of migrant charity Care4Calais which took part in legal action against Rwanda in 2022, described Labour’s deal as ‘morally repugnant’ and ‘abhorrent’
