Britain has lost control of its borders, admits Defence Secretary

48 comments

1. An admission like that is actually a step in the right direction.

   But it can’t continue like this.

2. Turns out 140 years after the advent of the motorboat people started using them to arrive here.

   If only we’d have had time to prepare.

3. A government saying this with a straight face is unserious.

4. The defence secretary speaks like it is someone else’s problem.

5. For once I don’t disagree with a lot written in this telegraph article. I think it’s a fair assessment of the issues we are having and sheds light on why “French police still are not intercepting them in the water despite agreeing to, which needs to change. 

   But can we all take a moment to laugh at the audacity of the Tories: 

   > The Tories described Saturday’s record crossings as a “day of shame for Labour” and said Britain had become a nation “reduced to chaos on the high seas”, with the Border Force at breaking point.

   No wonder that party is broken and on the verge of death. The double standards and hypocrisy is obscene. 

   Yeah, Labour aren’t exactly doing great at the moment and are getting more serious. But at least they are trying things. Unlike your lot, who just made the situation worse. 

   Also lol at describing it as a ‘record breaking day of shame’ when in the previous 3 years they have 63 days of even bigger shame where more people crossed in a day. 

6. Can’t we have a fence in the sea to control traffic?

7. France clearly dont care as are happy for these people to leave, they have no reason to stop it.

   The only way to stop this is to remove incentives, otherwise it will continue forever.

8. Hmm. Ok so it’s the Tories and the frenchies fault. But his plan seems to be relying on the french to change how they work (or don’t as the case may be).

   You want farage? This is how you get farage.

   He needs to step down .

9. I can shorten that for you..

   Britain has lost control

10. The focus on France is utterly facile. Of course they’re not going to stop crossings, why on earth would they?

    Removing incentives is the only solution.

11. “Smash the gangs” what gangs? The records of gang arrivals is what is really being smashed here. It’s unsustainable

12. Great. First step to rectifying the issue. But this needs a real plan. Real leadership. Can we have a bit of that?

13. We literally just paid another country to take some of our territory out of fear someone might invade and setup camp.

14. We should sue France for their actions in all this. They effectively send them off to us. Endangering the lives of the immigrants who cross the channel not to mention the damage to our economy.

15. And the current government decides to attack tax paying high earning legal expats that support the economy instead of getting the borders under control.

    Why? Because it’s easier to attack legal law abiding people than those that live undocumented. Well at least it gets the numbers down. Though the problem causing numbers stay stable ,

16. Starmer’s issue is he’s trying to stop Farage by calling press conferences. Obviously not going to work. However, stop the boats? You stop Farage.

    The article is right but seems to be framed that we have only just now lost control. The Tories weren’t any better on that front.

17. Let’s see what the actual quote was:

    > Truth is, Britain’s lost control of its borders over the last five years, and the last government last year left an asylum system in chaos and record levels of immigration.

    I’m not sure the headline conveys the sentiment Healey’s original statement was intended to convey.

    But yes – the problem of having a border in the middle of a fairly narrow bit of water that is also the busiest shipping lane in the world – it is difficult to put up border controls. As we’ve known all along, the work that needs to be done to “fix” this has to be done abroad – once people have left the French coast on boats there isn’t anything (reasonable) that can be done. And that requires the UK Government work nicely with foreign Governments – something the Conservatives were notoriously bad at.

18. This isn’t a recent development, still it’s quite a shock that he has some actual semblance of self awareness (or at least is pretending).

19. I thought we lost control when Blair opened the floodgates?

20. Can you imagine Thatcher putting up with this…..she’d have the Navy in the water and the boats would be turned round while telling the French to do one !!

21. Let’s give Reform a chance and let’s see how they get on fixing this border issues. Seems to be No1 priority for the party and ‘Nigel will fix it’

22. The ever increasing strain on public services, benefits and housing needs acknowledgment. Unless the immigration trends of the past 30 years somehow reverse, we’ll inevitably keep becoming more socio-economically like the USA, the historic epitome of an immigration-centric state. Leading to high absolute GDP (the political driver for the trend) but ever decreasing few public services, increasing levels of privatisation & increasing inequality.

23. [removed]

24. In the interview he also mentioned that more and more people are choosing the UK because asylum approval rates are dropping in some countries. Germany, Sweden are both tightening up. EU average is 42% approval. UK was 47% in 2024 and 67% in 2023.

25. Austerity and right wing policies don’t work. If you have no inclination to fund stuff properly then it ceases to function properly. The Telegraph needs to accept its share of responsibility for all of this.

26. It’s kind of funny how we can enter other countries to enforce democracy and hold it down for years but we can’t protect ourselves from a few boats slowly drifting the channel once in a while.

    Makes you think if they actually want this to happen…

27. These refugees will make a fine addition to our collection. 

28. I’m pretty sure, if the financial incentive was removed, you would stop these crossings almost instantly.

    Unlimited fines for companies employing people illegally and the removal of said workers from the country.

    Its absurd companies like Uber or Deliveroo, along with various other restaurants who lock their workers into modern slavery, employ illegals with no ramifications.

29. The Telegraph are second only to DMGT publications in a ranking of newspapers I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire.

30. Australia fix its boat problem with operation sovereign borders . Refuse to grant asylum to anyone arriving by boat . Expedite deportations. 

31. Tories set them all up in nice hotels at the taxpayers expense ofcourse while claiming the NHS had no money and doing nothing to stop more coming in.

    Seems really inviting. Come here use up our health care and money and then complain how terrible Britain is.

32. I read a book by a journalist who worked for the Home Office when Suella was in charge, she was desperate to stop the boats and they had Border Force trial turning boats around but their boats punctured the flimsy rubber of the dinghies.

    Maybe we can have look at what Frontex ( EU Border force) does and copy some of their techniques.

33. There is a simple solution:

    1 month from now, anyone that arrives here illegally is placed in the most basic of detention until they go back to wherever they came from.

    If you don’t want that – you simply don’t arrive illegally.

    If you do arrive illegally and are placed in such detention, it was your choice.

34. Farage single handed raised these cross channel boat insertions years’ ago in various video reports. The only reason it’s on the political radar is because of him. 

35. Surely such an admission should come with a resignation?

36. He did say thanks to the last five years of conservative government ineptitude though

37. We desperately need the left to stop either defending this or being at least nonplussed about it. The entire nation should see this as the emergency it is.

38. Can anyone think of a first or even second tier country that has borders that are “secure” in the way that these people would be happy with?

39. Brexitbans Toriws caused 100% ofntwh birder problems. It takes years to fix the problems, and rejoin.

40. next the royal navy will be launching landing craft on the beaches of france.

41. Failings of multiple governments since the turn of the century has lead us here. I fear where the UK is going.

42. But Brexit was supposed to give us back control of the borders we always had 100% control over. Are you telling me those tory rat scum bastards lied??? :(:(:(:(

43. “Be afraid of someone else” the rich say, while looting the country

44. I don’t understand what have we to offer over France, that’s worth drowning in the English Channel?

45. Yeah, we know. I wonder how these people can expect their lies to go unnoticed. Or is it just the default expectation that politicians will never tell the truth so the best we can hope for is an eventual overwhelming serious of events before they will act?

46. Congratulations, you have eyes, now do something about it.

47. Does an admission like this lead to demands to increase the defence budget?

48. It’s the Telegraph which, face it, is just The Sun with two-syllable words.

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