00:00Mark Harper has exclusively told GB News that he thinks the Prime Minister is all talk and no action.
00:06Very clear that Keir Starmer's phrase that he used endlessly before and during the election campaign about smash the gangs was just that, a phrase.
00:15Complete nonsense, hasn't had any impact and they haven't been able to reduce the flow of people coming across the channel.
00:23Let's talk to the political editor of The Spectator, James Heel. Good morning, James.
00:27Of course, the government in response to this is saying, well, talking about these hobs was not on the agenda in Albania,
00:36but we know it was because it was leaked everywhere before the visit actually happened.
00:42Well, this is the interesting thing. I mean, Keir Starmer yesterday was very keen to talk about how he was the first Prime Minister to go out to Albania,
00:47how much he wanted to sort of put in this UK-Albania relationship.
00:50But of course, you know, then beforehand officials were then starting to downplay the prospect and saying he was talking about just general security.
00:56When in fact, as we all know, that illegal migration is very much the top issue when it comes to internal talks between the two sides.
01:02And of course, we had that extraordinary press conference yesterday as well.
01:04So Albania has these deals with Italy, although famously so far, very few migrants and asylum seekers have actually gone to those hobs because the Italians have had...
01:15Or none, I think.
01:15Or none, because the Italians have had exactly the same problem with European rights, judges and the same kind of claims.
01:22But nevertheless, why would Albania refuse to do a similar deal with Britain?
01:28Well, in terms of sort of, I think, domestic political oppression is one reason why.
01:32You know, he was talking there about loyalty to the marriage of Italy, talking about the importance of having that relationship.
01:36I suppose it would be a bit sort of akin to our relationship with Ireland in some respects.
01:40But I think that in terms of why he wouldn't want to do it, I suppose it's obvious that no one particularly wants illegal asylum seekers coming to their country.
01:46And I suppose that's the whole sort of idea about sort of incentives in all of this.
01:50Thus far, the only country we've seen in sort of five years of talks between the Conservatives and Labour governments, the only country that had any interest was Rwanda.
01:57And so we always hear these sort of briefings.
01:59It's a bit like sort of, I have a girlfriend, but she goes to another school.
02:02You know, you don't know her.
02:03It's all these unnamed countries.
02:04We're dealing with the West Balkans, you know, we're dealing with sort of Bosnia, etc.
02:07But until we get over the line, Rwanda remains the only country to have shown any sort of formal public interest in this.
02:12We're dealing with the West Balkans.
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