Watch the moment GB News host Stephen Dixon challenges Labour’s Anna Turley on the Government’s small boats strategy, questioning what going “further and faster” really means for Britain.
Speaking to GB News Breakfast, the Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum insisted Prime Minister Andy Burnham will be “absolutely relentless on this issue”.
Today, French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Mr Burnham in No10 to discuss “shared challenges”, including the emergence of “mega-dinghies” which can ferry more than 200 passengers.
The pair will announce plans to deploy a surge team of 45 officers to prevent launches from further along the French coast, which will triple resources across the country’s Western beaches.
Stephen pressed Ms Turley, telling the Labour Minister: “More action needs to be taken by the French. We’re paying them a lot of money, but they don’t seem to be doing a lot of stuff for it?”
She responded: “Well, I’m really pleased that the Prime Minister’s meeting President Macron today, and he has been very clear that small boats is going to be top of the agenda to discuss. But we cannot say that nothing has happened here because we have been working very closely with the French, particularly since April.
“We have seen boats now down over 40 per cent. We have seen this summer the lowest number of people crossing the Channel in six years, that is not cheap.”
Ms Turley pledged the Government will go “further and faster” to tackle the Channel crossings.
Stephen Dixon has grilled Labour Minister Anna Turley on Labour’s approach to small boat crossings
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She said: “We are not complacent, and we want to be absolutely relentless on this issue. We are going to continue to go further and faster, and that is what the Prime Minister will be talking about today.
“Just today we have announced a further 45 officers, there is already 1,000 officers on top of the Gendarmerie that are operating on the French coast. These officers are moving further down to the west because we are starting to see fewer boats coming, but bigger boats.
“And we are making sure that when they start their journey further down the coast, the French officers are there to intercept them, to stop them getting onto the waters, and that we have the same approach that we have had in northern France that is starting to pay dividends.”
Pushing back on the Home Office minister’s remarks, Stephen then asked: “Sorry, but what does further and faster mean?”
Andy Burnham will meet with Emmanuel Macron later today to discuss the migrant crisis
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Ms Turley explained: “As I said, we are paying for another 45 officers to be on that western part of France. We are giving them more support in terms of judiciary, so being able to take more people into prison for offences of people trafficking and putting people at risk in sea.
“We have doubled the amount of investment we’ve put into our own National Crime Agency, which is working across borders to deal with the root source of where these boats are built, where they are coming across boundaries, where people are flowing. We are redoubling that data and that intelligence.
“And as I said, that is paying off at the moment, we are seeing a big decline. We have seen a 25 per cent reduction overall in the numbers claiming asylum and we have seen the lowest number of boat crossings this summer since 2020. So there is a lot done, but we are absolutely determined that there is much more still to do, and we’ll continue that conversation with the French today.”
Asked whether the new officers will be deployed to Belgium as a result of crossings also launching from the Belgian coastline, the Labour minister confirmed the Government is “working really well” with their Government.
Ms Turley told GB News that the Government will be ‘absolutely relentless’ on tackling small boat crossings
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GB NEWS
She said: “We’re working really well with the Belgians and also with the Germans, where a lot of this infrastructure is getting built. We’ve had great success with the Belgians, being very strong, and those numbers are backed down.
“There was a small surge in Belgian crossings earlier in the year. We’ve worked really closely with the Belgians to success, and we’re not seeing boat crossings for some time now coming over from Belgium.”
Ms Turley concluded: “But as you said, this is actually the dispersal effect because we are having success on the northern French beaches. We are disrupting those gangs, we are stopping those boats, they are moving along the shores.
“And we are absolutely determined that we make sure we are one step ahead and we stop them wherever they are trying to set off. And that is what today’s announcement is about moving further west, making sure that whole coastline is protected.”
