Nigel Farage blasted the “one-in, one-out” returns deal after a Channel migrant who was deported to France returned to Britain on a small boat. The Reform UK leader ripped into Sir Keir Starmer after the agreement descended into farce today and predicted there would be “many more” asylum seekers coming back to the UK.
Speaking on his GB News show, the Clacton MP said: “Wow, there we are, the Prime Minister told us if you come to Britain illegally you’ll be detained and deported. Well, how’s that looking? So far it’s 11,000 in and 42 out. Oh sorry, it’s not 42, it’s 41 because one has come back again.”
Mr Farage also took aim at Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt after he was unable to say what would happen if a migrant returned to Britain after being sent back under the agreement during a grilling by MPs on the Home Affairs Committee last week.
The Brexiteer played a clip from Mr Hewitt’s appearance before the committee, then said: “You what?
“This is the Border Security Commander who mumbles, jumbles and stumbles and clearly hasn’t got a plan or any idea, hadn’t even considered that anybody we returned to France might come back.
“Well it’s happened, one has come back and I’ve no doubt there’ll be many more.”
The man who returned has been detained and the Home Office intends to send him back to France again, it is understood.
He told the Guardian he was a victim of modern slavery at the hands of smugglers in the north of the country.
“If I had felt that France was safe for me I would never have returned to the UK,” the man told the newspaper.