Keir Starmer faced ridicule for boasting that Britain is leading the world in tackling illegal migration – as record numbers continued to cross the Channel today.
The Prime Minister highlighted UK plans to slap travel bans and asset freezes on people-smuggling kingpins in talks with fellow world leaders at the G7 summit in Canada.
He held one-on-one talks with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and Downing Street said afterwards that he ‘raised the UK’s world-leading work on people-smuggling sanctions’.
Today, however, there was little sign of any deterrent in action as the gangs who organise the crossings continued to outwit French police.
Last week officers on the beaches of northern France waded into shallow waters for the first time and used tear gas and pepper spray in an attempt to disperse hundreds of migrants trying to get into dinghies. But today, they were back to their usual position of just looking on with those piloting the waiting boats simply moving further away from the beach of Gravelines.
