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There really is momentum in the government to get closer ties with Europe in a whole variety of ways
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not just economic, as the Prime Minister outlined, but closer security ties too
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with the coordinating of our nuclear deterrence with the French. That is a genuinely pretty big commitment
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But obviously the main focus is going to be on this returns pilot that is, quotes
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coming in weeks, where those who arrive in the UK by boat will be, according to the Prime Minister
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detained and returned in short order. Natasha Clarke, LBC's political editor, was listening
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What did you make of my translating, first of all? Oui. Thank you
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Sybil. Firstly, on Keir Starmer's comments just then, this is a groundbreaking deal and we should say, you know
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this is the first time that this has been done under any government. No one was able to get the French to agree to do this
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No one has been able to get the French to do this. So this is big for the government
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And I think they will, you know, you heard Keir Starmer there say, we can't act alone. We've got to do this by working together
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His entire approach of an EU reset has now been vindicated by the fact that he's been able to get this sort of deal over the line
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So firstly, well done. Let's see if it works. Secondly, just on some of the details that the Prime Minister was talking about just then, strict security checks
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And for those who have not already tried to enter the UK illegally. So that will be a good deterrent because they be able to basically say and this is what so many MPs say time and time again you offer no safe and legal route to get to the UK So this is another safe and legal route that the government are opening up right
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It also puts the pressure on the French to stop the people from making that journey
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because they won't be able to leave France if they attempt to get on a boat and get to the UK
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Yes, correct. My one question now is, however, if you do not have a legal right to be in the UK
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you may attempt to do this crossing anyway right because what have you got to lose because you
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will go and they won't be able to say you've got you've got a right to stay in the UK you've got
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family here you've got a legitimate claim for asylum so say if you come from a relatively safe
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country a European country for example which is safe you've got no family there you may still
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continue to make this crossing and that is going to be a problem because if it is not seen as a
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deterrent people still make that journey people still attempt to do so if the French police are
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not you know stepping up there then you're still going to have a situation where people are coming at the end of the day, but we are still waiting for the details
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on exactly what this will look like. But a pilot in weeks, and it's interesting the Prime Minister
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didn't note how many people will be involved in this pilot as well
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So maybe the devil will be in the detail there. Is it going to be 50 has been reported per week
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If so, that's going to be an absolute drop in the ocean. But does that mean, therefore, if it is a true one-in-one-out deal
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as the Prime Minister seemed to indicate it was, does that mean that we will then be taking 50 asylum seekers per week
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on the other way around Seemingly so yes Ben in Cumbria asked the right uh tom so anyone who tries to enter illegally can then never apply legally
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yes that's basically it he said anybody that who has not tried to enter the uk illegally will be
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able to be applicable for this scheme which in itself would be a deterrent right to which ben
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then says fair play yeah i mean which it's fair enough isn't it i mean as you said no british
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prime minister has been able to get emmanuel macron to agree to anything like this it's just now
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well what's the extent of it yeah absolutely i could say how many people will that cover we don't
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know yet um when will it be implemented we don't know yet it could be weeks you know coming weeks
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you say incoming weeks well weeks and you know weeks in government very much feels like it could
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be september right detained and returned in short order i thought short order was doing quite a lot
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of heavy lifting also detained that's an interesting thing where are you going to put them are you
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going to be put them in some of the, you know, sort of Manston-style detention units that the
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government were previously using once they changed the law to make it illegal to come over in a small
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boat? And how long do you expect to do so before they are taken back by the French? Who is going
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to take them back and where to? There's a lot of questions here still. Detain cannot mean hotel
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because as we've seen, lots and lots of people put in hotels and are able to leave the hotel
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sort of go around, and in some cases it seems work. That can't happen now. If we judge the
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Prime Minister seriously when he says detained Well detained makes it sound like there is some sort of criminal activity that gone on Yeah exactly Freedom deprived Yeah exactly So you won be able to put them in a hotel as you said People who are coming over asylum seekers migrants who are
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coming over, being put in hotels, they are not detained. They are allowed to come and go as they
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want to, and they are not being detained. So it does sort of raise the question, why use that word
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detained? They will obviously be held, seemingly against their will. They will obviously face
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strict security checks as well, I'm sure, once they come here. But where will they go
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How many will there be? And what part of France is... Are the RNL are going to come pick them up
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Are the French going to come pick them up? Are the police going to take them away? And what might that timeline look like
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Because we had the problem with Rishi Sunak's changing of the law, right
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So when he made it illegal for people to come here in small boats, but they couldn't get those people off to Rwanda
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you then face this big, big problem where the hotels filled up, the holding centres filled up
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it became unsafe, they had nowhere to send these people, and eventually it became this huge, huge backlog
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that the Labour government are now trying to put down. So as Emmanuel Macron continues to test all of our GCSE French
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let's repeat where we are. We have a deal between Britain and France
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a returns pilot coming in the next few weeks during which anyone who makes a journey
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across to the United Kingdom will be, the Prime Minister says, detained and returned in short order
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And a person on the other side of the channel who has a legitimate asylum claim for the UK
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will be given a safe route after necessary security checks and only for those who haven't tried
