A Labour MP has been grilled on the Government’s inability to “control the borders” after signing the country up to welcoming tens of thousands of EU nationals.
Speaking to GB News, Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds was questioned by host Christopher Hope on their efforts to stop the small boats, as 550 more migrants arrived in the UK today.
The Government announced their agreement to rejoin the Erasmus student exchange programme, which will open the door to tens of thousands of EU nationals to come to Britain.
The deal will see the UK return to the Erasmus Plus programme in 2027.
Asking Mr Thomas-Symonds if the Labour Government is “trying to reverse Brexit”, the Labour minister responded: “No, absolutely not. What I’m actually doing here is delivering, and this is a really exciting announcement today.
“Because what we are talking about here, it’s not only students at universities that are going to benefit from our accession to Erasmus+ in 2027, we’re talking about our further education sector as well.
“So an engineering apprentice who might want to spend between two months and 12 months overseas, we’re talking about the potential for youth work.
“We’re talking about sports exchanges. We’re talking about staff who are able to go overseas to develop themselves professionally. We’re talking about adult learners.”
He added: “So this is a real opportunity for tens of thousands of people to be able to broaden their horizons. I’m proud to have negotiated this, and I am determined now that as we take this forward, this will be open to people irrespective of what their background is.
Nick Thomas-Symonds has been grilled by Christopher Hope on Britain’s migrant crisis as Labour signs the UK up for an EU exchange scheme
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GB NEWS
“And I want to say to your viewers who are watching this. It doesn’t matter what your background is, if this is something you are interested in, it could very well be for you.”
Highlighting that the scheme is going to cost £570million from 2027 to 2028, Christopher pressed Mr Thomas-Symonds on his ability to negotiate with the EU.
The Labour MP hit back: “I think it says about my negotiating skills that I’ve managed several things here that wouldn’t have been within the capability of the previous Conservative Government.
“Firstly, I’ve negotiated a 30 per cent discount, which means £570million for 2027 to 2028. But what that is, that contributes to a pot of money, much of which will flow back here to the UK in the form of grants to those people, particularly young people who want to participate.
“But the other thing I’ve done, what I’ve got agreed is ten months after we start this program, we will look at that balance between the cost and the participation. We’ll have the actual data, then, of the number of people here in the United Kingdom who have benefited, which makes sure that we are absolutely doing this on a value for money basis.”
European students will be able to spend a year studying in Britain as part of their degree | GETTY
He stated: “That is the test that I have throughout this process actually applied, where something isn’t value for money and isn’t in our national interest, I won’t sign up to it. Where it is value for money in our national interest, I will. And that’s exactly what I’ve done here.”
Grilling Mr Thomas-Symonds on the latest migrant crossings, which totalled 550 in one day, Christopher asked him why the Labour Government “can’t control the borders”.
Mr Thomas-Symonds told GB News: “That’s exactly the work that we are doing. If there was a single lever we could pull to stop these crossings, we obviously would have done it.
“There are a number of things we have to do, changing the laws here in the UK so you can have the same powers to tackle people smugglers as we do terrorists, we’re driving that through.
“It’s then the work we’re doing with other countries alongside our border security command. That’s where we’ve got the pilot scheme in place with France.
“We’ve had a period where there were no crossings at all for several weeks. We then had the numbers that you have suggested, but what we are absolutely determined to do, because that’s what the British public want to do, is bear down on these numbers. It’s about international cooperation and domestic decisions as well.”
Mr Thomas-Symonds told GB News that they are doing ‘all they can to protect British people’
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The Paymaster General was then asked for his thoughts on GB News’s exclusive interview with Abbie, a teenager who was sexually assaulted by an Iranian asylum seeker.
Mr Thomas-Symonds responded: “Of course, people who commit these crimes should be deported. And I pay tribute to Abby, first of all, for being willing to speak out on GB News for what was obviously a terrible, terrible experience. It isn’t easy to speak about trauma.
“But also to say people who do come in, there are biometric checks that do happen, so that’s irrespective of whether they have a passport or not.
“And that is then cross-referenced with other databases that we have. So absolutely, we are doing all we can to protect the British people.”