Starmer says France needs to co-operate more over migration

Sir Keir Starmer has said France should do more to tackle a rise in small boat crossings in the English Channel, ahead of meeting Emmanuel Macron at a major global summit.

The Prime Minister said he wants “more co-operation” over migration and will raise the issue with the country’s president as the number of people making the journey climbed again over the weekend, taking this year’s provisional total to 16,317.

On the way to the G7 conference in Canada, where leaders from the world’s wealthiest countries will meet for talks on global security, Sir Keir said he was determined to “absolutely bear down” on the crossings.

Journey

Data from the Home Office indicated 919 people made the journey in 14 boats on Friday and 134 crossed the Channel on Saturday. The highest daily number so far this year was on May 31, when 1,195 people arrived.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the response from French border authorities, Sir Keir told reporters: “One of the things we’ve worked hard at is improving the relations with the French in relation to the work we both need to do to stop these boat crossings, which I’m determined we will absolutely bear down on.

“Nobody should be making that journey.

“As a result of that we are seeing a much greater co-operation in northern France – I want to see more co-operation in northern France, and it’s an issue that I have raised and will raise again with President Macron.

“We have good relations between the Home Secretary and the interior minister now that we’re working on jointly.

“It’s one of the issues I’ll be discussing – not just with Macron, actually, but discussing it with Giorgia Meloni, Freidrich Merz, and others.”

Discussions

Downing Street said the Prime Minister had “lengthy discussions” about migration with his Italian counterpart during his first bilateral meeting at the summit in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday.

“The Prime Minister raised the UK’s world-leading work on people smuggling sanctions, adding that he looked forward to working with other European countries on this approach,” Number 10 said.

Sir Keir’s Government has pledged to “smash the gangs” behind people-smuggling operations but has so far struggled to bring down crossings in the Channel, which is one of the busiest and most dangerous shipping lanes in the world.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week committed £200 million to overhauling the asylum system and said the Government will end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this Parliament.

The “reset” deal struck between the UK and EU in May this year included commitments to co-operate more on migration, including greater intelligence-sharing.

It did not include an EU-wide returns agreement, which the Prime Minister said in 2023 he would seek to secure.

Sir Keir’s agenda for the G7 summit has not been confirmed but he is expected to hold talks with Mr Macron as well as US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Mr Merz over the course of the conference.