Starmer opted to agree a deal with a weak hand. The basics of deal making, say you must first strengthen your hand.
- France doesn't do much to stop the illegals.
- The UK pays France a lot of money to stop them, it hasn't really worked.
- France see the problem as a UK one and a nice solution to their illegal immigration problem
- We are currently getting ~1000 a week, we are on track for over 50,000 this year. We have already had the worse record YTD of all recent years.
- The problem was made worse by Starmer scrapping what he considered to be gimmicks, yet actually had some deterrent value.
- 80-90% of those coming are young men, many with links to organised crime. The system is geared to accept weak asylum claims.
France needed to be placed in a weaker position.
- Non cooperation, would have reduced the numbers. Currently the hand off and taxi pick ups are coordinated often with French/British SARs vessels.
- Turn backs, we've already explored this - there are legal ways to disrupt some of the crossings.
- Remote processing/storage - some remote Scottish island, with few inhabitants or even a retired cruise ship.
- Prosecute all skippers and place a duty on SARs vessels to report the skipper/helm.
- Limit Legal Aid funding to UK Nationals for claims and appeals, given those being prosecuted the right to leave to as a plea deal.
The goal should be to make the UK a less attractive place for economic illegal migrants.
Then do a deal with France,
