Andrew Neil ripped into Sir Keir Starmer for blaming the small boats crisis on Brexit. The Prime Minister branded dinghies crossing the Channel as “Farage Boats” in a new interview.
In a swipe at Brexit, he said the UK was no longer able to return asylum seekers to member states under the Dublin Convention after leaving the EU. But Mr Neil highlighted how the UK accepted more people than were sent back under the Brussels agreement.
In a post on X, the veteran broadcaster said Sir Keir was “either ignorant of the facts — or knowingly lying”.
He said: “Keir Starmer claims Nigel Farage is to blame for the boat people because Brexit took us out of the Dublin Convention (in 2020), which allowed us to return asylum seekers to the EU countries from whence they came.
“The PM is either ignorant of the facts — or knowingly lying. Neither is a good look.
“The Dublin Convention was a two-way street for asylum seekers. Yes, we could try to return them. But others could also be returned to us.
“As a result the Dublin Agreement actually made us a net recipient of asylum seekers.
“Take 2018. We made 5,500 requests for asylum seekers to be returned. Only 209 transfers were agreed. In the same year, under the same convention we accepted 1,215 asylum seekers.
“So we were net recipients by over 1,000. The Dublin Convention did nothing to make it easier to return asylum seekers.
“Nearly all politicians are cavalier with the truth when it suits them. But Starmer is taking this to a new level.”
In an interview with GB News, Sir Keir insisted that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had been “wrong” during the 2016 Brexit referendum that it would make no difference to migration policy if the UK voted leave.
The PM said: “I would gently point out to Nigel Farage and others that before we left the EU, we had a returns agreement with every country in the EU and he told the country it would make no difference if we left. He was wrong about that.
“These are Farage boats, in many senses, that are coming across the channel.”
