Rishi Sunak teams up with Giorgia Meloni to call for more action on illegal migration
Rishi Sunak, and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, have teamed up to call for more action to be taken to tackle illegal migration.
Both leaders have made reducing the number of people arriving in their nations outside traditional pathways a key part of their leadership.
The pair co-hosted a summit on the fringes of the European Political Community Summit in Granada yesterday.
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French President Emmanuel Macron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were all part of the meeting.
The group “expressed a shared commitment to support one another to tackle the challenges of irregular migration”, and committed to taking eight steps to reduce illegal migration.
These including taking joint action to tackle organised crime, working closer together on sharing information, developing countries where people are leaving, strengthening visa regimes and working to improve returns within the group.
The group also agreed to “update the legal framework to strengthen our fight against people smugglers, ensuring harmonisation of criminal offences and working together at the UN level”.
Italy recently saw thousands of people arrive at the island of Lampedusa in a day. More than 130,000 people have arrived in Italy so far this year – compared to close to 71,000 last year.
Ms Meloni, speaking to Skytg24 to mark the TV’s 20th anniversary, hailed what she called progress made in Europe on the migration issue.
“At European level, there have been many steps forward,” she said in the interview, recorded before the Spain summit.
She cited a recent visit to the island of Lampedusa by Ms von der Leyen, saying that Europe was now speaking in “clear words”.
“Everybody understands the problem can’t really be dealt with by Italy alone,” she said.
Both the UK and Italy have had parts of their migration programme challenged in the courts.
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For the UK, this is the Rwanda deportation scheme, which is due to be ruled on next week, while in Italy judges have ruled against steps taken by Ms Meloni to detain migrants.
As well as their meeting in Europe, Ms Meloni and Mr Sunak co-authored an article in The Times.
In it, the pair said they “are working together to stop the boats and we are calling on others to act with the same sense of urgency”.
The pair added: “Our determination to tackle this issue is already delivering results.
“It has sparked a change in the debate and created momentum across Europe.
“Countries across our continent are recognising that the current approach is not working.
“They’re realising that we need closer co-operation and tougher measures to crack down on the people smugglers.”
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This comes shortly after UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman called for an international asylum system reform, saying that “discrimination” was being used as a reason for people to claim refuge – when the bar should be “persecution”.
She said that being a woman or gay and fearing discrimination should not be enough for someone to qualify as a refugee in the UK.
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Sir Keir Starmer has said the next election will be an “open fight” between Labour and Reform UK.
The prime minister, speaking at a conference alongside the leaders of Canada, Australia and Iceland, said the UK is “at a crossroads”.
“There’s a battle for the soul of this country, now, as to what sort of country do we want to be?” he said.
“Because that toxic divide, that decline with Reform, it’s built on a sense of grievance.”
It is the first time Sir Keir has explicitly said the next election would be a straight fight between his party and Reform – and comes the day before the Labour conference begins.
Just hours before, after Sky News revealed Nigel Farage is on course to replace him, as a seat-by-seat YouGov poll found an election held tomorrow would result in a hung parliament, with Reform winning 311 seats – just 15 short of the 326 needed to win overall.
Once the Speaker, whose seat is unopposed, and Sinn Fein MPs, who do not sit in parliament, are accounted for, no other party would be able to secure more MPs, so Reform would lead the government.
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Sir Keir said there is a “right-wing proposition” the UK has not had before, as it has been decades of either a Labour or Tory government, “pitched usually pretty much on the centrepiece of politics, the centre ground of politics”.
The PM said Reform and its leader, Mr Farage, provide a “very different proposition” of “patriotic national renewal” under Labour and a “toxic divide”.
He described his Labour government of being “capable of expressing who and what we are as a country accurately and in a way where people feel they’re valued and they belong, and that we can actually move forward together”.
Sir Keir referenced a march down Whitehall two weeks ago, organised by Tommy Robinson, as having “sent shivers through the spines of many communities well away from London”.
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The PM said Reform presents a ‘toxic divide
The prime minister said the choice for voters at the next election, set to be in 2029, “is not going to be the traditional Labour versus Conservative”.
“It’s why I’ve said the Conservative Party is dead,” he added.
“Centre-right parties in many European countries have withered on the vine and the same is happening in this country.”
Reacting to Sir Keir’s comments, a Reform UK spokesman said: “For decades, the British people have been betrayed by both Labour and the Conservatives.
“People have voted election after election for lower taxes and controlled immigration, instead, both parties have done the opposite.
“The public are now waking up to the fact Starmer is just continuing the Tory legacy of high taxes and mass immigration.”
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