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The UK and Turkey will work together to “disrupt and dismantle” people smuggling gangs under a new deal announced today.

A new operational “centre of excellence” will be established by the Turkish National Police as part of the agreement and both countries will also share intelligence.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he was unable to disclose the amount of money handed over by the UK government as part of the deal.

He told GB News only that “we are giving some funding”, adding: “It is not primarily about money.

“This is mainly about the sharing of intelligence and information between our world-leading police and security services and their law enforcement authorities, so that if we find out something important, that can be acted upon quickly, and vice versa.”

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Has the Home Office lost its grip?

It comes as Downing Street is accused of seeking to distract from what Labour has said are “catastrophic failures” on its immigration policy.

On Monday just 15 asylum seekers boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge, after legal challenges by lawyers stopped 20 others from moving onto the floating vessel.

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Ultimately the accommodation, docked in Portland Port off the coast of Dorset, will only house 500 single males – fewer than 1% of the number of people awaiting for their asylum claims to be processed.

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Labour has called on the government to get a grip of the asylum case backlog and said a series of announcements this week – including a crackdown on a “tiny minority” of dodgy immigration lawyers – are nothing more than “headline-grabbing moments”.

The Law Society also accused the government of “lawyer-bashing” with the announcement of work that is not new.

The government has been largely focusing on finding cheaper forms of accommodation to reduce the expensive hotel bill for asylum seekers, hoping this will also act as a deterrent for people crossing the channel.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the new partnership with Turkey will concentrate on trying to “smash the people smuggling gangs” in order to “stop the boats”.

She said: “Our partnership with Turkey, a close friend and ally, will enable our law enforcement agencies to work together on this international problem and tackle the small boat supply chain.”

According to the Home Office, the export of small boats and boat parts across the continent of Europe in order to facilitate illegal crossings to the UK is a vital element of people smugglers’ tactics.

The deal with Turkey aims to facilitate the swifter exchange of customs data, information and intelligence between UK and Turkish authorities, bolstering the collaborative efforts to disrupt the supply chain of materials employed in illegal migration.

The centre will allow for greater collaboration between the National Crime Agency and Home Office Intelligence staff based in Turkey and their Turkish counterparts, with the UK set to deploy more officers to Turkey to help with joint operations.

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Why Boris’s best mate is off to Reform

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Why Boris's best mate is off to Reform

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈       

Former Conservative chairman and friend of Boris Johnson – Sir Jake Berry – is defecting to Reform UK, causing more problems for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

On today’s episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss if his defection will divide parts of Reform policy.

Elsewhere, the Anglo-French summit gets under way, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hoping to announce a migration deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to deter small boat crossings.

Plus, chatter around Whitehall that No10 are considering a pre-summer reshuffle, but will it have any value?

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

The trial is part of Project Acacia, an initiative from the RBA exploring how digital money and tokenization could support financial markets in Australia.

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Starmer and Macron agree need for ‘new deterrent’ to stop small boat crossings

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Starmer and Macron agree need for 'new deterrent' to stop small boat crossings

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed the need for a “new deterrent” to deter small boats crossings in the Channel, Downing Street has said.

The prime minister met Mr Macron this afternoon as part of the French president’s state visit to the UK, which began on Tuesday.

High up the agenda for the two leaders is the need to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel, which Mr Macron said yesterday was a “burden” for both the UK and France.

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The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.

Sir Keir is hoping he can reach a deal for a one-in one-out return treaty with France, ahead of the UK-France summit on Thursday, which will involve ministerial teams from both nations.

The deal would see those crossing the Channel illegally sent back to France in exchange for Britain taking in any asylum seeker with a family connection in the UK.

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However, it is understood the deal is still in the balance, with some EU countries unhappy about France and the UK agreeing on a bilateral deal.

French newspaper Le Monde reports that up to 50 small boat migrants could be sent back to France each week, starting from August, as part of an agreement between Sir Keir and Mr Macron.

A statement from Downing Street said: “The prime minister met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street this afternoon.

“They reflected on the state visit of the president so far, agreeing that it had been an important representation of the deep ties between our two countries.

“Moving on to discuss joint working, they shared their desire to deepen our partnership further – from joint leadership in support of Ukraine to strengthening our defence collaboration and increasing bilateral trade and investment.”

It added: “The leaders agreed tackling the threat of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared priority that requires shared solutions.

“The prime minister spoke of his government’s toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats.

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“The two leaders agreed on the need to go further and make progress on new and innovative solutions, including a new deterrent to break the business model of these gangs.”

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, seized on the statement to criticise Labour for scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, which the Tories claim would have sent asylum seekers “entering the UK illegally” to Rwanda.

He said in an online post: “We had a deterrent ready to go, where every single illegal immigrant arriving over the Channel would be sent to Rwanda.

“But Starmer cancelled this before it had a chance to start.

“Now, a year later, he’s realised he made a massive mistake. That’s why numbers have surged and this year so far has been the worst in history for illegal channel crossings.

“Starmer is weak and incompetent and he’s lost control of our borders.”

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