Sir Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron are believed to have a “vague” secret deal to allow illegal migrants crossing the Channel to be returned to France if the Labour leader becomes Prime Minister later this year.
Sources have claimed that Sir Keir has the deal “in his back pocket” after he and senior Shadow Cabinet members including Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy held talks in Paris with Mr Macron last year.
The French have refused the same deal with the Conservative Government which is why the Tories have put so much effort in trying to get the deportation flights to Rwanda to work to break the human traffickers’ business model.
But it is understood that they would only consider the idea with Sir Keir because he wants to reverse Brexit or, as Labour phrase it, “transform Britain’s relationship with the EU”.
Whitehall sources do not believe such a deal would in the end be made or could work not least because Mr Macron would have to explain to his voters why France was taking thousands of illegal migrants from the UK.
Also, as previously reported, Britain would need to agree to take in a share of the EU’s illegal migrants which has been estimated at 100,000. This would be on top of the illegal migrants coming to the UK through other means such as overstaying holiday visas, which make up the majority of the arrivals.
A report in the Independent today has set off alarm bells again about what a Starmer government is signing Britain up to.
It noted that the reason Mr Macron might offer a returns deal to France of small boats for illegal migrants is “because it would be Starmer’s number one goal as he transformed UK relations with the EU – a project he is deadly serious about”.
This has been taken by Tories to mean “reversing Brexit” with the Labour leader last year already promising to “not diverge from” EU standards and regulations, reducing Britain’s competitiveness.
A senior Tory source told Express.co.uk: “We have known for some time that they think they have something in their back pockets which is why they have been so smug about Rwanda and opposed the deportation flights.
“But every time they are challenged they say ‘not true’ while never saying anything to dismiss the idea. It’s one thing hiding your plans, it’s another lying about them.
“The issue is that we all know that Labour does not believe in stopping illegal migration. It is hiding in plain sight that they think border controls and stopping the boats are racist, xenophobic and unfair. So we know that Starmer won’t actually stop the boats even if he says he will. His party believes in open borders but isn’t honest enough to say it.”
The secret deal has infuriated Conservative Brexiteer MPs who believe it is at best “hypocritical” of Labour and is likely to make the numbers of illegal migrants even worse.
Former Brexit minister David Jones, who is deputy chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative MPs, said: “It’s a terrible deal. If Starmer says it’s a good one he’s either stupid or disingenuous.”
He added: “Of course, under such arrangements, the UK would probably be required to take a share of the total European illegal immigration. That wouldn’t go down so well.”
Meanwhile, Ashfield MP Lee Anderson made it clear he did not believe Labour is serious about stopping illegal migrants.
He said: “For the past few years Labour have said the illegal migrants were genuine asylum seekers fleeing wars and persecution.”
He added: “This plan won’t stop the small boats coming.”
Express.co.uk has approached Labour for a comment.
