RISHI DEFENDS BOAT DEAL WITH MACRON

PM INSISTS SUMMIT DEAL TO GIVE FRENCH MILLIONS MORE WILL MAKE DIFFERENCE

- Nicholas Cecil

RISHI SUNAK today defended spending tens of millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money on boosting measures in France to deal with the small boats crisis.

As he arrived in Paris for a UK-France summit, he said that more police patrols, better use of technology, and new infrastructure would “make the most difference” in the short term.

He admitted that getting France to accept the return of migrants who reach British shores was a longer-term goal, with French president Emmanuel Macron believed to be insisting that such an agreement can only be reached at European Union level.

The Prime Minister pledged more than £60 million in November to beef up action in France to stop the criminal gangs sending tens of thousands of migrants across the Channel in often unseaworthy boats. He was expected to strike a new deal today, totalling tens of millions more, to try to stop the small boats leaving Pas-de-Calais beaches.

Mr Sunak said: “Right now, on the ground, having boots on the ground, greater co-operation between our teams is the thing that can make the most difference in the short term.

“The priority right now is given the nature and scale of the problem we are facing is doing things that can stop the flow of illegal arrivals coming.”

But he hopes better relations between Britain and France, and other EU states, could open up the prospect of a returns arrangement for migrants who arrive in the UK.