Keir Starmer warned of 'selling UK down the river' with France migrant deal

GB News

Ex-Director General of UK Border Force Tony Smith has cast huge doubt over plans for a new deal with France, claiming he has "no confidence in any deal" done to tackle the migrant crisis.Speaking to GB News, Smith told host Martin Daubney that he has a "sense of depression hanging" over him, and warned Labour of "selling themselves down the river".FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00So, one in, one out.

00:02That basically means anybody who comes here illegally,

00:04we can kick out, but we have to take an asylum seeker in return.

00:08I put it to you, this is the worst plan in history.

00:11What we want is non-in and all-out.

00:15Afternoon, Martin.

00:16Yeah, I mean, I suppose I should be running round the room

00:18punching the air that we've got a result here, Martin,

00:20because I've spent a lot of my career trying to do a deal

00:22with the French on asylum returns,

00:24and ever since the boat started, I've been advocating save thirds.

00:28But we've never got one before.

00:30And this isn't new.

00:32I mean, we've had this before where we do some kind of deal with them.

00:35It's always gone wrong, Martin.

00:37I'm afraid I'm not confident in any deal.

00:41Of course, we haven't seen the detail yet.

00:42I may be doing them a disservice.

00:44But my worry, Martin, is that, you know,

00:47we've got this big summit coming up this week.

00:48There's desperate political pressure upon them

00:50to come up with some kind of an announcement

00:52because they're getting beaten up all over the place.

00:54So, we might just end up selling ourselves down the river here.

00:58There are a lot of people in France that would quite like to come here

01:01that can't come here, right?

01:03They don't qualify to come here.

01:05There already are family reunification routes.

01:06So, let's forget about that.

01:08I think we must be saying that we're going to offer them

01:09some kind of carrot where a lot of people that can't come here now

01:12are going to be allowed in.

01:14That really, really worries me because we've got quite enough people

01:16coming in as it is.

01:17As for the returns, Martin, I don't even know how that's going to work.

01:19I mean, how's that going to work then?

01:20Are we going to be able to put them on a Border Force vessel

01:23and sail them straight back into Calais?

01:25What, all of them?

01:26Straight away?

01:27Or what happens when the lawyers get involved when they're in our waters?

01:29Or what happens if we bring them ashore in Dover?

01:31Are there going to be exceptions?

01:32Women, kids, all of these things, Martin, are going around in my head.

01:35So, I'm afraid I'm not running around punching the air.

01:38In fact, I've got a sense of that depression hanging over me

01:41waiting to see what exactly it is that we've done here.

01:44But I am a little bit worried that we might be actually

01:46making things worse than better.

01:48I just hope I'm wrong.

01:49I think you have every right to be cynical.

01:51I mean, let's face it, every illegal immigrant that makes it to our shores

01:55has already a failure of the French to stop them coming across.

01:59And we're paying half a billion quid a year for the merit of that.

02:02So, we're paying half a billion quid.

02:04And when the French can't do their job, only then can we return them.

02:08But even if we do that, we've got to take an asylum seeker back.

02:11I put it to you.

02:13Who's doing these deals?

02:14They shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a deal-making terror.

02:17Well, they're incompetent.

02:18Yeah, I agree with you.

02:20I don't know, Martin, who's doing it right now.

02:23I do know the guys that used to do it back in the day,

02:24but they've all retired now.

02:26So, I don't actually know who's doing it.

02:27But, I mean, our negotiating record has not been great, has it, Martin?

02:30You report on this regularly, but you reported on other stories

02:33more up your street than mine.

02:34But, I mean, the Shagos Islands, that didn't go too well.

02:37I mean, the fishing, that hasn't gone too well.

02:40I mean, every single time we've been promised.

02:42And the E-gates, I do know about that.

02:44That was a complete con, Martin.

02:46And there's been no deal with them on E-gates at all.

02:48They made that up and they put ministers out on media rounds

02:51trying to convince poor old tourists that Stan said,

02:54oh, don't worry, it's all going to be hunky-dory.

02:56It's not.

02:56It's going to get worse getting into the EU

02:57when they bring in the fingerprinting in October.

02:59So, there is spin going on, spin galore, Martin.

03:02It's just guys like you have got to keep doing what you do

03:06and exposing this and saying, well, wait a minute.

03:08What exactly is going on here?

03:10I don't even know what's going on here.

03:11I'm really looking forward to the announcement on Monday.

03:14But I am not optimistic, I'm afraid.

03:16If we haven't been able to get a deal all these years now,

03:18what is it that suddenly happened, Martin?

03:20Suddenly, right now, with this government and this negotiating team,

03:23we've got this fantastic new agreement.

03:25What's in it for the French?

03:26Why would they suddenly start saying, oh, that's all right,

03:28then we'll take the boat people back when they haven't for the last eight years.

03:31And even before that, I can tell you,

03:32even when I was doing it with the lorry drops,

03:34they weren't taking them back then either.

03:36And we haven't had a deal with the French since the gentleman's agreement

03:38back in the 90s, and that didn't apply to a sign.

03:41So I'm sorry, I'm going on a bit, Martin,

03:42but I'm a little bit worried about this.

03:44I really am.

03:45I want to see the detail of it,

03:47and no doubt I'll come back and have a chat with you when I see it,

03:49but I'm not, as we speak, optimistic.

03:51I'm not, as we speak, optimistic.

03:52I'm not, as we speak, optimistic.

03:53I'm not, as we speak, optimistic.

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