Former navy chief warns military cannot stop boats

Lord West says Trump's idea would make 'no difference'

- ARCHIE MITCHELL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

The former head of the Royal Navy has hit back at Donald Trump's call for the UK to draft in the military to end the small boats crisis, calling the suggestion “a load of nonsense”.

The US president on Thursday warned that illegal migration can “destroy” countries as he told the prime minister to “call out the military”, as Sir Keir Starmer struggles to bring illegal migration under control, with the number of crossings at a record high.

Labour minister Peter Kyle yesterday said that the Royal Navy could be called upon to tackle small boats crossing the English Channel “if needed”.

But former first sea lord Admiral Lord West said Mr Trump’s suggestion would make “no difference at all” because the UK cannot easily return boats to France.

Lord West, who coordinated the UK’s maritime response to 9/11, including the invasion of Afghanistan, said: “The American situation is very different. We basically already have the navy involved and we now have a very clear picture of which boats are coming across and how many there are,” he said.

But he added: “Of course, that makes no difference at all, unless you are allowed to return them. If we were allowed to return them, it would be brilliant, we could do that very easily, but we are not able to do that. All we can do is identify them, stop people drowning and basically they then get into the country.”

“Unless the French would take them back, there is nothing that can be achieved,” he warned. “You could fill the whole Channel — well, we haven’t got enough ships - but you could have them everywhere and all they would be doing is escorting them to the UK.”