Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been accused of doing “anything but confronting the truth” as the Government continues to face backlash over its handling of the illegal migrant crisis.
Speaking to GB News, Deputy Online Editor of the Critic Tom Jones argued that Labour MPs “haven’t got the stomach” to implement “stronger tactics” to stop small boat crossings.
The criticism of Labour follows new footage of French police coming under attack as they attempted to intercept a migrant boat.
Officers can be seen using spray to disperse the migrants, who threw projectiles at the officers before they deflated the dinghy by cutting it with a knife.
French police units have prevented 185 small boat crossing attempts in the first three months as part of a new £662million UK-French deal.
Reacting to the footage, Mr Jones said although it is welcome, he questioned why the French have “never thought of doing this before”.
He told GB News: “The most interesting thing about this footage is that this is a completely new tactic by the French police. Apparently, they have never thought of doing this before, of just running up to the boats as they’re being put on the beach into the water and then slashing them.
“And you have to give some credit to the deal that Shabana Mahmood signed about three months ago, which actually put in some performance quotas.
“The deal is worth £662million, and about £100million of that is basically results-based. We don’t quite know what the results are, but that obviously is a serious chunk of change that the French have got their eyes on.”
Asked whether the interception could be a “long-term solution” to the crossings, Mr Jones told GB News that criminal gangs will “counter-adapt” to allow migrants to keep making the crossing.
He explained: “I think one of the things that the gangs have shown is that they are an incredibly effective business. They’re pretty much Britain’s only growth industry at the minute.
“We’ve already seen they’ve started launching from Belgium, they come down from the Belgian coast and then make the shorter crossing across to France.
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“They’re also offering 50 per cent discount now for anybody with a child, because that makes interceptions much less likely, so we will see counter-adaption, in another three months, probably they’ll have counter-adapted.”
Criticising the Government’s approach to illegal migration, Mr Jones argued that Labour keeps “shuffling pieces around the board” to “make it look like they’re doing something”.
He said: “The problem is that we have an overly generous migration settlement package that basically pulls people here, and then we have this insane legal framework that means we can’t get rid of people who shouldn’t be here.
“And so these deals with France, they are a short-term solution, but they’re not a long-term solution. The long term solution is for these people to not be here and not come here in the first place.”
Asked why the Government isn’t “using stronger tactics” to tackle illegal migration, Mr Jones argued that it “will do literally anything but confront the truth”.
He concluded: “I honestly don’t think they’ve got the stomach for it. Fundamentally I just think this is not a problem that Labour wants to deal with. They want to come in and do nice Labour things, and they’ve elected two Prime Ministers now on the basis that they have been told that they will not have to make difficult choices, and so they just keep avoiding it.
“And I just really don’t see that there is any, apart from Shabana Mahmood, any real drive to actually sort this problem at all.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said: “Our new UK-France deal is already having a real impact, stopping crossings before they happen and disrupting the criminal gangs behind them.
“People smugglers should be in no doubt, we’re taking down their operations, seizing their equipment and breaking their business model for good.
“Through our joint work with France, we have stopped over 47,000 small boat crossing attempts since the election and we will not let up.”
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