Keir Starmer’s plan for a returns deal with the EU if he wins power will ‘probably’ mean the UK taking in a quota of asylum-seekers, a senior French politician has warned.
French MEP Fabienne Keller said Britain would also have to make a financial contribution to bloc-wide immigration efforts if it wanted to set up the opposition leader’s scheme.
Ms Keller, spoke as EU states reached an agreement on an overhaul of its laws on handling asylum-seekers and migrants.
The reform includes speedier vetting of irregular arrivals, creating border detention centres, accelerated deportation for rejected asylum applicants and a solidarity mechanism to take pressure off southern countries experiencing big inflows.
Ms Keller, whose Renew Europe group led the negotiations, said it would be ‘great’ if a similar deal could be done with the UK, adding: ‘Brexit is a trauma for us.’
Asked about a deal under a possible Starmer administration, she told the BBC it would ‘probably’ involve the UK taking a quota of EU arrivals and making a financial contribution ‘as it is the case for all the member states’.
The Tories have suggested the Labour plan to join an EU-wide returns agreement would mean ‘tens of thousands more illegal migrants coming to the UK’.
But Labour dismissed his comments and said the party ‘won’t be joining any EU quota scheme’.
French MEP Fabienne Keller said Britain would also have to make a financial contribution to bloc-wide immigration efforts if it wanted to set up the opposition leader’s scheme.
Sir Keir revealed in the autumn that he would seek an EU-wide returns agreement for asylum seekers who come to Britain if he becomes prime minister.
Sir Keir revealed in the autumn that he would seek an EU-wide returns agreement for asylum seekers who come to Britain if he becomes prime minister.
Labour has since said the scheme would not be based on quotas nor would it be part of an existing scheme.
Yesterday the EU agreed to overhaul its asylum system to share out the cost and work of hosting migrants more evenly across the bloc.
The plan includes more border detention centres and speedier deportations in a bid to limit the number of people coming in.
Mr Cleverly seized on the announcement of the pact, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Sir Keir ‘wants to join this’.
The Home Secretary said: ‘He would accept forced illegal migrant quotas from the EU. This would mean tens of thousands more illegal migrants coming to the UK. We cannot accept this.’
But Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s shadow immigration minister, said: ‘This is made-up rubbish, we’ve made it clear we won’t be joining any EU quota scheme.
‘The Tories are so keen to distract from their own disastrous failings on Rwanda, small boats and asylum that now they are just lying about Labour.
‘The Tories have undermined our border security, broken our asylum system and bust the Home Office budget. The country cannot afford more of this Conservative chaos.
‘Labour has a serious plan to smash the criminal gangs with a new cross-border police unit, recruit 1000 new caseworkers to clear the backlog and end hotel use, and set up a new Returns Unit to ensure that those with no right to be here are swiftly returned.’
The EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum should start taking effect next year, when it is expected to be formally adopted by the European Council and European Parliament.
Migrant arrivals in the EU are down from the 2015 peak of more than a million, but have steadily crept up from a 2020 low to 255,000 in the year to November, with more than half crossing the Mediterranean from Africa, mainly to Italy.
Previous efforts to share out the responsibility of hosting migrants have foundered because eastern member states were unwilling to take in people who had arrived in Greece, Italy and other countries.
Under the new system, countries not at the border will have to choose between accepting their share of 30,000 asylum applicants or paying at least 20,000 euros (£17,300) per person into an EU fund.
The screening system envisaged will seek to distinguish between those in need of international protection and others who are not.
People whose asylum applications have a low chance of success, such as those from India, Tunisia or Turkey, can be prevented from entering the EU and detained at the border, as can people seen as representing a threat to security.