{"id":518541,"date":"2025-10-22T02:46:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/518541\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T02:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:46:16","slug":"fury-as-albanian-pm-claims-brexit-depressed-britain-and-led-to-small-boats-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/518541\/","title":{"rendered":"Fury as Albanian PM claims Brexit ‘depressed’ Britain and led to small boats | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albania\u2019s prime minister has sparked fury after claiming Brexit led to Britain becoming \u201cdepressed\u201d and more small boat crossings<\/a>. In explosive comments on the historic decision to leave the EU and the illegal migration crisis, Edi Rama said \u201csome call them small<\/a> boats, some call them Brexit<\/a> boats\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: “You left Europe because you wanted more happiness. Now you are depressed.” UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> will host leaders from the Western Balkans \u2013 including Mr Rama \u2013 on Wednesday as he seeks to strengthen efforts to snare smuggling gangs and prevent migrants from crossing Europe.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir is expected to continue negotiations on return hubs to bolster the deterrent to those considering crossing the Channel.<\/p>\n

But no deals are expected to be announced at the Western Balkans Summit.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a think-tank event on Tuesday, Mr Rama said of the Channel migrant crisis: “Some call them small boats, some call them Brexit<\/a> boats. And one wonders why you left Europe.<\/p>\n

“You left Europe because you wanted less boats, and you have more boats. You left Europe because you wanted more investment. You have less investment.<\/p>\n

“You left Europe because you wanted more happiness. Now you are depressed.”<\/p>\n

He also continued his swipe at Brexit<\/a> by claiming closer collaboration improves efforts to tackle illegal migration.<\/p>\n

Mr Rama said: \u201cThat has worked in a fantastic way. It has worked in a way that I believe is sustainable.<\/p>\n

“It’s a systemic, confrontation with this disease of trafficking networks.” And in a thinly veiled reference to Nigel Farage<\/a>, he said: “It’s not up to us to decide who will be elected and who will not be elected in Britain.<\/p>\n

“But at the end of the day, we have seen more than once that the business of the Government is something totally different from the poetry of the opposition. So I don’t see any problem when it comes to cooperating with whomever.<\/p>\n

“And, at the end, I believe that Farage is not the problem, Farage is a mirror of problems that has some theatrical capacity to be attractive, but the problems are elsewhere.”<\/p>\n

But a Home Office source who was in post as tens of thousands of Albanians crossed told the Daily Express: \u201cEdi Rama has no idea what he\u2019s talking about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he actually did his job, Albanians wouldn\u2019t have been fleeing for the UK in their droves.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should spend less time mouthing off and more time taking back the record number of Albanian criminals clogging up our jails.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two Western Balkans nations \u2013 Albania and Montenegro \u2013 have stressed that they will not host \u201creturn hubs\u201d for failed asylum seekers ahead of the summit with Sir Keir.<\/p>\n

Mr Rama has repeatedly insisted he only did a deal with Italy because of his country\u2019s historic ties to the nation.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhen it comes to the to the hubs, or whatever they are called, I\u2019ve said it, and I repeat \u2013 never in Albania.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning to Montenegro\u2019s prime minister Milojko Spajic, Mr Rama asked him if he would host a hub if the UK built railways in his country, to which he replied: \u201cWe definitely accept it, if they would invest 10 billion euros into building railways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Spajic added: \u201cMontenegro is not part of the migrant routes through the Balkans\u201d.<\/p>\n

Britain has approached Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina and several countries outside Europe for return hubs.<\/p>\n

Ministers hoped to secure a deal with at least one Balkan nation before the summit. But talks with Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia are still at an early stage.<\/p>\n

It comes as analysis by the think tank Migration Watch slammed Sir Keir\u2019s returns deal with France, warning only 42 people have been removed since August 6.<\/p>\n

This is the equivalent to a return every two days. Given almost 60,000 migrants have arrived since Sir Keir took office, it would take until 2320 to remove every small boat arrival under Labour.<\/p>\n

The Home Office has vowed to ramp up returns under Sir Keir\u2019s deal with Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n

Migration Watch chairman Alp Mehmet: \u201cThis is not a legacy to look back on with pride, Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, if we receive one migrant back for each one we return, we will have the same number, plus new arrivals, to fend for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public have had enough of fibs and bluster, which the gangs lap up as they get smashed on champagne.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Albania\u2019s prime minister has sparked fury after claiming Brexit led to Britain becoming \u201cdepressed\u201d and more small boat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,5322,748,43669,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,5804,155430,16,15,168901],"class_list":{"0":"post-518541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-brexit-news","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-edi-rama","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-migrant-crisis","18":"tag-small-boats-crisis","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-western-balkans-summit"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115415533700396854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518541","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=518541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}