Guy Verhofstadt blamed Brexit for the UK’s migrant crisis in a speech in Iceland. The former Belgian prime minister has not been shy about criticising the UK for its decision to leave the EU and go its own way.
He once famously taunted British politicians by telling them that “making Brexit work is a delusion.” The Belgian politician could not resist taking another swipe at the UK in a speech he gave in Iceland, as the country prepares to vote on whether to join the EU in an upcoming referendum. Mr Verhofstadt turned to the thorny subject of migration, arguing that individual countries could not solve the crisis on their own.
On the contrary, it needed a common and united approach to bring the situation under control.
“And I think, by the way, when we are talking about the big issue of migration, it is also an issue that can only be solved on the European level instead of 27 different policies,” he said. “Where one country tries to push those who enter into another country and they say we push them there and the Hungarians say ok we push them out.
“And the Austrians say go to Germany and the Germans say go to Belgium and the Belgians say go to France and then they end up where…in Britain naturally.”
At which point his audience broke out into hearty laughter. Mr Verhofstadt then went on to mercilessly drive his point home.
“The reality is that Brexit had a common policy on migration,” he explained. “It was Polish people who went to work in the building industry in Britain and that was a big issue during the Brexit.
“Now today it is Africans and Pakistanis who enter in Britain and they have a totally other problem – a crisis of migration. That’s not sovereignty, that’s stupidity.”
Britain is currently facing an influx of illegal migrants, the majority of whom are arriving on small boats.
According to the most current Home Office data, 44,125 detected irregular arrivals occurred in the year ending March 2025.
This represents a 14% increase on the previous year, and 86% of these arrived on small boats.
“Small boats have been the predominant recorded entry method for irregular arrivals since 2020, when detections on this method increased rapidly and detections on other methods declined,” the Home Office said on its website.