{"id":465066,"date":"2025-10-01T06:26:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T06:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/465066\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T06:26:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T06:26:19","slug":"keir-starmer-labels-channel-crossings-nigel-farages-boats-as-pm-lashes-out-at-reform-leader-over-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/465066\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer labels Channel crossings ‘Nigel Farage’s boats’ as PM lashes out at Reform leader over Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer has blamed Nigel Farage for Britain’s migrant crisis, describing small boats crossing the Channel as “Farage boats”.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister made the staggering claim during a sit-down interview with GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope.<\/p>\n

Following his speech, in which the Prime Minister accused Reform UK of being the “enemy of national renewal”, Sir Keir told the People’s Channel: \u201cI 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 and he told the country it would make no difference if we left. <\/p>\n

“He was wrong about that. These are \u2018Farage boats\u2019 coming across the Channel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister appears to have been referring to the EU-wide Dublin Convention, which includes a provision to return asylum seekers to the first member state they arrived in.<\/p>\n

However, the UK’s final few years of participation in the Dublin Convention would indicate that Britain was a net recipient of asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

Home Office data revealed that 676 asylum seekers were transferred from Britain in 2016 and 2017, while 1,019 illegal migrants were transferred to the UK over the same period.<\/p>\n

The figure comes in stark contrast to the 131 who were transferred into the UK in 2015, when 510 asylum seekers had been transferred out.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister sat down with Christopher Hope after his keynote speech in Liverpool<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GB NEWS<\/p>\n

Sir Keir’s accusation about Mr Farage’s role in facilitating Channel crossings also appears to overlook the Reform UK leader’s work exposing the migrant crisis during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Mr Farage recorded his first video from the Kent coast in April 2020, warning his viewers that the migrant crisis is worse than anyone thought. <\/p>\n

The Brexit stalwart revealed less than a year later that he was contemplating a return to frontline politics as a result of the surge in illegal migration. <\/p>\n

However, Sir Keir used his sit-down interview with GB News to warn that Reform UK does not want to stop migrants crossing the Channel.<\/p>\n

\"Christopher<\/p>\n

Christopher Hope quizzed Sir Keir on his rhetoric, digital ID and Nigel Farage<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GB NEWS<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhen we are trying to deal with our borders, we\u2019re trying to pass the Borders Bill to give more powers to law enforcement to deal with the small boats. <\/p>\n

“What did Nigel Farage do? He voted against it. We\u2019ve got a returns deal with France. What does Nigel Farage do? He says he\u2019d rip it up. <\/p>\n

“There\u2019s ID cards to stop them working illegally in our economy. He says he\u2019ll reverse that. <\/p>\n

“He doesn\u2019t want to fix the problems because if the problem is fixed his reason to exist goes away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris also quizzed Sir Keir on his plan to bring down legal net migration<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GB NEWS<\/p>\n

Sir Keir is hoping to stop migrants arriving via small boats by investing money into the Border Security Command and by striking a “one-in, one-out” returns deal with France.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Farage is asking for Sir Keir to go further, pushing for mass deportations and withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n

GB News revealed this weekend that Labour’s “one-in, one-out” deal is doing little to deter migrants from crossing the Channel, with the number of arrivals exceeding 7,000 since the deal came into force on August 3. <\/p>\n

Following Sir Keir’s keynote conference speech, Mr Farage hit back at the Prime Minister over his remarks.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThis is a desperate last throw of the dice from a Prime Minister who is in deep trouble. <\/p>\n

“A Prime Minister who can\u2019t even command the support of half of his own party, but, I\u2019m sorry to say, I now believe that he is unfit to be the Prime Minister of our country.”<\/p>\n

\"NigelNigel Farage hit back at Keir Starmer for the comments | POOL <\/p>\n

However, Sir Keir also took aim at the Tories over Boris Johnson’s handling of legal migration into Britain.<\/p>\n

When asked if legal net migration that will come down, the Prime Minister told GB News: \u201cIf you look at it, well, we had the Boriswave, didn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

“Immigration went up four-fold under the Conservatives in five, short years. It is unbelievable. <\/p>\n

“And we are bringing it down, you\u2019ve seen those numbers come down. <\/p>\n

“Of course, it\u2019s right to say that many people come here to contribute to our society but the numbers need to come down and we\u2019re bringing them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Net migration peaked at a record-breaking 906,000 in the year ending June 2023, dropping to 431,000 last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer has blamed Nigel Farage for Britain’s migrant crisis, describing small boats crossing the Channel as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,528,285,386,16,3106,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-465066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-keir-starmer","16":"tag-labour-party","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-reform-uk","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-uk-politics","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115297490499015819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}