Tory MPs suggest sending migrants to UK to the Falklands

Conservative MPs are urging ministers to send people travelling to the UK by small boats to offshore
centres as far away as the Falkland Islands as concern grows that the party is losing support among
5 red wall voters. Priti Patel, the home secretary, should also be willing to automatically return
migrants to France if the party is to fulfil the Brexit promise of taking control of the UK’s borders,
MPs said.
The increasingly extreme demands come amid deepening alarm in Downing Street and the
Conservative party over the rising numbers of people risking their lives by making the journey in
10 winter.
High-ranking officials believe at least 10 people have died in the last few weeks while trying to make
the crossing across one of the world’s busiest shipping channels. More than 1,000 have crossed in a
single day twice in the past fortnight.
Labour accused Patel on Sunday of “comprehensively failing” to curb the growing numbers of
15 people taking the dangerous journey across the Channel.
Downing Street’s concerns over the Channel crossings spilled into the public domain on Friday when
Boris Johnson announced a review of the government’s small boats policies.
The Guardian spoke to six Tory MPs from so-called red wall and Kent constituencies on Sunday.
They are demanding that the government goes further in laying down hardline policies to deter
20 people from entering the UK. Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, said he
lobbied an immigration minister two weeks ago to say that offshore processing, where those who
seek asylum are sent abroad while their cases are processed, should begin as soon as possible. “I
would be in favour of [using] the Falkland Islands. The only way we will put these people off is by
giving them the message that if you come here you are going to be sent 8,000 miles away,” he said.
25 Craig Mackinlay, the MP for South Thanet, said he and his backbench colleagues are facing
increasing demands via email and social media for the government to stop boats carrying migrants
from entering the UK. “We had a Brexit election where one of the main issues was getting control of
our borders. This is of massive concern to my constituency and many of our voters across the UK,”
he said. He said the government should consider sending people straight back to France “although
30 this could have diplomatic, high octane consequences”, he added. “In the long term, we should also
be more involved in patrolling the French coastline. If advanced economies can’t successfully patrol
100 miles, using the technology we now have, it doesn’t say much and I frankly don’t believe it,” he
said.
Another MP said that Patel, who has said on 11 occasions that she will curb the number of boats
35 crossing the Channel, has fallen into Johnson’s habit of overpromising and underdelivering on a key
government policy.
Hundreds more people, including very young children, have made the dangerous Channel crossing to
the UK over the weekend. Adults carrying youngsters and others wrapped in blankets were seen
arriving on the south-east coast of England on Saturday with help from lifeboat crews. More than
40 24,700 people have arrived in the UK so far this year after making the Channel crossing in small
boats – almost three times the number in 2020.
Appearing on the Andrew Marr show, Labour’s shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds,
said Patel was “comprehensively failing” to stem the flow.
Downing Street sources said Steve Barclay has been brought in to ensure that different departments
45 are working together to solve the small boats issue.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the government faces a serious
challenge if it is to deliver on its promise to control the UK’s borders. “It needs to stop
overpromising and underdelivering, recognise it’s a complex issue that requires less meaningless
rhetoric and more intelligent realism, less harsh control and more human compassion.”
50 Sajid Javid, the health secretary, defended the government’s efforts to solve the crisis in the Channel
and said Covid had made things more difficult.
The Guardian, 21st November 2021