A former Labour Cabinet minister today blamed the migrant crisis in the Channel on Brexit and condemned Boris Johnson for ‘infuriating’ Emmanuel Macron.
David Miliband, chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, told Radio 4’s Today programme that the Prime Minister’s open letter to the French President — in which he outlined a plan to clamp down on people-smugglers sending asylum seekers to Britain — was ‘unwise’.
London and Paris are engaged in yet another diplomatic spat after 27 migrants drowned off the coast of Calais when their dinghy capsized this week.
President Macron, fast track trial bundle index a prominent opponent of Brexit who has clashed with Mr Johnson over a range of issues including fishing rights, claimed the Prime Minister’s letter was a breach of French sovereignty.He responded by dramatically disinviting Home Secretary Priti Patel from crisis talks.
Speaking to the BBC, Remainer Mr Miliband said the migrant crisis is ‘a graphic demonstration of what Brexit means’ and appeared to take France’s side in the war of words.
‘I think the French government were quite wrong to disinvite the UK (for talks) because obviously the UK needs to be part of it,’ the former Foreign Secretary said.
‘But the Government was most unwise to write a letter, apparently an hour after the Prime Minister spoke to President Macron, index_bulk_delete which on any reading could be seen to be designed to infuriate President Macron. You can say that he was wrong to be infuriated but it wasn’t sensible to try and infuriate him.And in the end we’re going to have to make up and make good for rapid seo indexer what Brexit has created.’
Mr Miliband said that before Britain left the EU, there was a scheme that gave the UK the right to send some asylum seekers back to the bloc.
‘That doesn’t exist and that’s one of the things that means we’re still going to be negotiating Brexit for some time to come,’ he added.
David Miliband (pictured) has criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson for trying to ‘infuriate’ French President Emmanuel Macron in the row over how to deal with the migration crisis
The PM (pictured yesterday) wrote directly to the French president to formally offer hundreds of British personnel to stop desperate migrants from taking to the water
Policemen inspect the beach near Wimereux, France on November 25, 2021
This is the first picture of the flimsy and dangerous dinghy that sank off Calais, killing 27 people
Smugglers threatened to shoot migrants, including bride-to-be Mariam Nouri Dargalayi (pictured with fiance), unless they boarded the doomed dinghy that went down in Channel
Up to 50 people were supposed to board two boats ahead of the fatal voyage — but one vessel suffered engine trouble, those stuck in camps in France claimed.Rather than curtail the trip that would have netted them tens of thousands of pounds, the gun-toting gang corralled the migrants into one boat, it was said
The new arrivals bring the total number to have made it to the UK this month to more than 6,000, exceeding the previous record of 3,879 in September.This year’s total is now a record-breaking 25,772
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