Deal between UK and France over small boat crossings ‘in final stages’, says Number 10
A deal between the UK and France to tackle people crossing the Channel in small boats is in its “final stages”, Downing Street has said.
Rishi Sunak met Emmanuel Macron, the French president, earlier today at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt to discuss the issue, with the prime minister saying he left “with renewed confidence and optimism”.
Mr Sunak said there would be “more details in the coming weeks”.
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Pressed on those details later, his official spokesman revealed a deal was close to being done and talks on the specifics were taking place separately, indicating they would involve Home Office officials.
Almost 40,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year.
Mr Sunak reportedly wants to agree targets with Mr Macron for stopping boats, and a minimum number of French officers patrolling beaches, and to be able to deploy Border Force officers in France.
The prime minister said he was “determined to grip” the situation, but added there was “not one simple solution that’s going to solve it overnight”, pledging to work with other European leaders on the “shared challenge”.
Speaking after the meeting, the French president also said he wanted better coordination between the two countries to cope with the issue.
Earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would “work upstream” with Mr Macron “to stop the smugglers in the first place” if he were prime minister, adding: “Before I was a politician, I was director of public prosecutions, I know how these cross-border operations work.
“That is the discussion I would have, I hope it is the discussion that our prime minister will have.”
‘Challenge far from over’
The migrant crisis was brought into focus last week by overcrowding at the Manston processing centre in Kent, where 4,000 people who had made the crossing were packed into a space designed to hold 1,600.
It led to growing pressure on Mr Sunak over his reappointment of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, with claims she ignored legal advice and blocked people being moved to hotels, accusations she denies.
Speaking in the Commons this afternoon, Sir Roger Gale, the veteran Tory MP who had described the Manston situation as “a breach of humane conditions”, said: “We are now nearly back to where we need to be with the Manston processing centre operating efficiently.”
He asked for assurance from Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, that “Manston is a processing centre and not an accommodation centre”.
Mr Jenrick said the numbers were now down to less than 1,600 and that it was not the government’s “intention that Manston is turned into a permanent site for housing migrants”.
He said: “The population is now back at an acceptable level and that is a considerable achievement. It’s essential that it remains so and he is right to say that the challenge is far from over… we have to be aware of that and to plan appropriately.”
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Conservative MP for North Thanet Sir Roger Gale told Sky News last week that the situation in the Manston migrant centre was a ‘breach of humane conditions’.
During the debate Lee Anderson, a Tory MP in Nottinghamshire, said that sourcing accommodation for “illegal immigrants” left him a “bitter taste” in his throat.
“I’ve got 5,000 people in Ashfield who want to secure council housing and they cannot get one. Yet, we’re here debating this nonsense once again,” he said.
“The blame lies in this place right now – when are we going to go back and do the right thing and send them straight back the same day?”
Mr Jenrick said the government “should be guided by both our common desire for decency because those are our values, but also hard-headed common sense”.
A 15-year-old boy has died after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London, police say.
Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.
The Metropolitan Police said a boy “was recovered from the lake” at around 10.42pm the same day.
“He was taken to hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. His death is being treated as unexpected but not believed to be suspicious,” according to the force.
The boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.
The force originally said the child was 16 years old, but has since confirmed his age as 15.
In the earlier statement, officers said emergency services carried out a search and the park was evacuated.
Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon
Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.
The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres.
It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said on Friday: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.
“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.”
Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.
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