(Image: PA)
THE scrapping by the Labour Government of the “one in one out” scheme with France now makes it clear that the Government has no real strategy to curb the levels of illegal immigrants entering the UK.
The scheme which was much vaunted by Keir Starmer allowed the UK to return small boat arrivals whilst agreeing to take in the same number of people from France who were believed to have a legitimate claim to come to Britain.
But this scheme, which Keir Starmer said would work well, unlike, he said the Rwanda deportation scheme, introduced by the Conservatives to tackle the issue and which he cancelled on his first day in office, is also now scrapped.
Why?
Because it failed miserably.
Instead of thousands being returned to France only around 1,500 people have been removed since the scheme began just over a year ago.
At the same time in a similar period some 28,000 people have arrived by small boats across the Channel.
The comparable numbers plainly show it didn’t work.
So what, if anything, will Andy Burnham come up with as a deterrent now?
I doubt if he’ll have anything planned to replace it.
After all this is the man who stated during Prime Minister’s Questions that national security “can’t come at the expense of social security”.
It is a grave concern that someone with this attitude leads this country.