Burnham urged to join EU pact to tackle small boats and fix Brexit ‘mess’

Andy Burnham has been urged to take the UK into the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact to help tackle small boat arrivals.

The move would allow the UK to legally return migrants to the first EU country they entered and grant Britain access to the bloc’s biometric database, the Liberal Democrats say.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey also hit out at Brexit, which he said had made it more difficult to carry out checks on those crossing the Channel, because the Home Office no longer has access to EU-wide data sets containing criminal history and other information on those whose asylum applications have been denied elsewhere.

Sir Ed said: “Farage and the Conservatives should hang their heads in shame for breaking our borders with their bad Brexit deal.

“But instead of apologising to the British public, they are now exploiting the mess they created for their own gain.

“We have a plan that would finally end the small boats crisis: a pact with every EU country that will allow us to return people who come over the Channel, taking away the major pull factor that Farage and co created and destroying the business model of the criminal gangs.”

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The party’s home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson also said Reform would “sooner send in the Navy at taxpayers’ expense and strip British people of hard-won rights by leaving the ECHR than admit they’re responsible.”

The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which has been in place since June 12, aims to make the system more efficient and stable, in part by preventing refugees moving from the country they first arrive in.

It includes a new duty on asylum seekers to apply for asylum in the first country they enter.

Other measures include new screening and registration rules, an expanded system for tracking biometric data and fast-track procedures for those from countries with a low likelihood of being granted asylum.

Joe Meighan, policy adviser at campaign group European Movement, said: “People were told that leaving the EU would mean greater control over illegal migration; instead, we have seen precisely the opposite. The deadly situation on the Channel is shameful.

“Serious cross-border problems require serious cross-border cooperation. This is not simply about Britain’s borders; it is about the security of our entire continent. From organised people-smuggling and migration, to defence, climate change and energy security, the defining challenges facing Britain and Europe do not stop at national borders. They never did. They never will.

“We need to work with our European partners, sharing information, tackling criminal gangs and making borders across our continent safer and more secure. Britain’s security is inseparable from Europe’s security.

“This is another reminder of why Britain is stronger working with Europe, not apart from it. As the challenges facing our continent grow, we should be moving towards the closest possible cooperation with the EU and making the positive case for Britain joining, taking its place at the heart of the European Union, and leading on solving the problems we face.”

Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain, which campaigns for UK-EU reintegration, said: “The Lib Dems have the right diagnosis but only half the cure: Britain cannot patch up Brexit one painstakingly slow and expensive deal at a time.

“Bilateral sticking plasters may offer temporary relief but will never deliver automatic access to the EU’s systems and the economic growth that comes from being in, not out. Membership would give us this and every other benefit along with a desperately needed £92bn boost to Treasury coffers.”

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