The Prime Minister has once again turned the truth on its head by trying to blame Brexit – and me – for the thousands of illegal immigrants landing on our shores. Keir Starmer says he “would gently point out to Nigel Farage and others that before we left the EU, we had a returns agreement with every country in the EU” to send back asylum seekers.

He even called the boats now crossing the Channel filled with illegal immigrants “Farage boats”. Let me point out to Starmer, none-too-gently, that even by Labour’s standards, this is an extraordinarily devious and dishonest effort to mislead the British people.

Until 2020, when the UK left the European Union, the Dublin Convention did allow us to try to return some illegal immigrants to other EU member states.

But they could also return asylum-seekers to us. And as with so many EU deals, Britain got the worse end of the bargain.

For example, in 2018, Britain asked our EU neighbours to take back 5,500 asylum seekers.

They agreed to take just 209. Meanwhile, thanks to the same returns agreement, we accepted 1,215 asylum seekers from them.

So the fact is that, under the Dublin Convention that Starmer now praises, the UK was a net recipient of asylum seekers from other EU members. It did nothing to help us stop the flow of illegal immigrants into Britain. He knows this.

Since then, that flow has become a flood – not because we left the EU, but because first the Tories and now Labour have betrayed the promise of Brexit.

The establishment parties have failed to take back control of Britain’s borders. Instead, they have opened the gates to illegal immigrants, thousands of whom they put up in luxury hotels at taxpayers’ expense.

It is Starmer who should take personal responsibility for the boats now landing on our shores.

From the day Labour was elected in July 2024, to this Tuesday, September 30, no fewer than 57,329 illegal immigrants arrived in Britain – a record number. Strangely, that’s a record Starmer didn’t want to boast about at Labour’s conference.

Reform UK is the only party that believes in Britain enough to take the tough measures needed to secure our borders.

We will detain and deport illegal immigrants, leave the ECHR and stop the boats. That’s an immigration policy I am happy to put my name to.