Home Office staff condemn Braverman's crossings plan

Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak are on a collision course with civil servants over their controversial small-boats plan. Proposals to turn back all arrivals have provoked a huge row, with the government saying something must be done to stop migrants, while the UN's refugee agency condemned the idea as illegal.

- LIZZIE DEARDEN ADAM FORREST

Staff within the Home Office told The Independent that the home secretary's plans are mere "empty threats" and will not work, while former Tory ministers called for more safe and legal routes to be established for asylum seekers. Ms Braverman was condemned for a statement sent in her name to Conservative Party members, which claimed that officials implementing her policies were part of an "activist blob" that had blocked previous attempts to stop the crossings.

French president Emmanuel Macron is expected to tell Mr Sunak at a meeting in Paris tomorrow that Britain will have to make annual payments if it wants France to tackle the crisis by stepping up patrols in Calais. Yesterday, Ms Braverman defended the Illegal Migration Bill as "necessary, proportionate and humanitarian", saying that up to 80,000 people could cross the English Channel this year.

The number of people arriving on small boats to the UK rose by 60 per cent between 2021 and 2022, to 46,000. The government has tried twice in the past four years to solve the problem, while thousands of arrivals are having to be accommodated in hotels at huge expense. But there is widespread unrest inside the Home Office over Ms Braverman's admission that her plans may violate human rights law, and the UN Refugee Agency's warning that they amount to a "clear breach" of international law.

Days after a new deal on post-Brexit arrangements seemed to reset relations, an EU Commissioner also warned the plans break international law. Ylva Johansson says she told Politico: "I spoke to the British minister (Braverman) yesterday on this and I told her that I think that this is violating international law."