Britain’s Labour home secretary Shabana Mahmood has increased the UK funding available to France to realise the perennial demand that someone must ‘Stop the Boats.’
The current arrangement between the two countries—negotiated by the then-prime minister, hapless Rishi Sunak—is scheduled to lapse on Tuesday, March 31st. Government sources have let it be known that the UK Home Secretary seeks a “more ambitious” arrangement that delivers “more bang for our buck.”
While the eye-watering €58 million cost of the subsidy to France would remain the same, it is being suggested that Mahmood wants minimal guarantees on the operational details so that many more crossings are prevented. At present the French authorities seem to be preventing around a third (or 35%) of attempted crossings, funded in part with UK public money.
Predictably enough, it appears that another arrangement with France, the ‘one-in, one-out’ programme is having a negligible deterrent influence on cross-channel lawbreakers. GB News estimates that almost 600 arrived in the UK during the recent good weather over the past five days, beginning with 262 arrivals on Wednesday, March 18th.
Sunak broke his political neck on the issue of illegal migrant Channel crossings. To date, his Labour successors are faring little better.
