On becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer wasted no time in axing the Conservatives’ Rwanda scheme, which he sanctimoniously denounced as a ‘gimmick’.
Clearly, no one in his beloved EU was listening. For Germany, where a migration crisis has exploded, wants to send asylum seekers to the African nation for processing.
Even worse, Berlin would house them in accommodation that Britain paid millions for, before Labour unceremoniously dumped the deterrent. What a farce.
No 10 says scrapping Rishi Sunak’s plan was right. But when Channel migrants were flocking to Ireland to avoid deportation to Rwanda, it was clearly having a dissuasive effect before a single plane had taken off.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard the RNLI Lifeboat following a small boat incident in the Channel on Tuesday
Berlin’s migration commissioner Joachim Stamp has proposed deporting those who arrive illegally in the bloc via Poland’s border with Belarus
The Hope Hostel in Rwanda was prepared to accept asylum seekers who had landed in the UK
Since taking power, the PM has also closed the Bibby Stockholm barge used to house asylum seekers. And now they won’t be held at RAF Scampton either.
With Labour offering the thousands who arrive in small boats an effective amnesty, Britain is an increasingly attractive destination. More are making the perilous journey – and more are drowning.
On the election trail, Sir Keir pledged to ‘smash the gangs’ who profit from trafficking migrants across the Channel.
His failure to implement a strong deterrent means the UK is, instead, an ever-more powerful magnet for illegal migrants.
A Brexit betrayal?
Sir Keir must be weeping tears of joy, now Michel Barnier has been parachuted in as the new prime minister of France.
During the bitter divorce proceedings between Britain and the EU, he conspired with the serpentine Mr Barnier – at that time, Brussels’ chief negotiator – in an underhand bid to thwart Brexit altogether.
These days, Sir Keir insists he doesn’t want to reverse the referendum result. But bitter experience shows his promises aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
Both men are fanatical Remainers, both want a European superstate and neither hides his admiration for the other.
How long before they sneakily cook up an entente which surrenders the sovereignty Britain voted decisively to regain?
Barnier pictured with Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee palace in Paris, on January 31, 2020, a few hours before Britain officially left the European Union
Recipe for disaster
As predictably as night follows day, the Left-wing unions have responded to their bumper pay awards from the Government with calls for even more cash.
Ahead of its conference, the Trades Union Congress is demanding ‘pay restoration’ in the public sector to make up for real-terms salary cuts since the 2008 financial crash.
Calculated to add £50 billion a year to public spending, this is unaffordable. One example is the junior doctors clamouring for a backdated settlement of 35 per cent.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar speaking at the Scottish Trades Union Congress at Caird Hall in Dundee
Of course, such nonsense would once have been laughed out of court.
But having agreed once to growth-crushing pay claims, Labour is again faced with its union paymasters, hands outstretched, expecting further generosity.
This is a recipe for economic disaster. But would anyone bet against this Government – already way out its depth – paying up?
- By removing the last 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords, Sir Keir would complete an act of constitutional vandalism begun by Tony Blair. These unelected aristocrats may be an anachronism, but they generally possess an expertise often sadly lacking in the upper house. When they’re gone, he’ll no doubt cynically replace them with failed Labour MPs, cronies and dodgy donors – pounding another nail into British democracy’s coffin.
