Huge flaws emerged yesterday in Labour’s latest toothless plan to combat the small-boats crisis.
New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said countries that refuse to ‘play ball’ and take back migrants could face curtailed access to visas.
She announced she had ‘reached an agreement’ with her counterparts from the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing alliance to boost the return of foreign nationals who ‘have no legal basis to remain in any of the partner countries’.
However, it later emerged that restrictions on visas would be imposed only by Britain – and not by the US and other major economies which signed the deal.
The Home Office said the deal would lead to ‘much closer working’ but was unable to say what it would mean in practice. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused Ms Mahmood of ‘shameless spin in her first week on the job’.
Any visa restrictions imposed would, in theory, mean people seeking to travel here legally could be denied entry if their governments fail to cooperate with deportations from Britain.
Pakistan, India, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Gabon are thought to be among countries who often refuse to accept their citizens back from the UK.
But there is a possibility that targeted countries could respond with tit-for-tat measures, with implications for trade deals and for universities unable to recruit as many foreign students.
Labour backbenchers, having already opposed separate visa measures proposed by the Government, could rebel if it prevents foreign-born constituents bringing relatives to Britain.
Ms Mahmood said: ‘For countries that do not play ball, we’ve been talking about how we can take more coordinated action between Five Eyes countries.
‘For us, that means possibly the cutting of visas in the future, just to say we do expect countries to play ball… and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you do need to take them back.’
She ruled out Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights to deal with the migrant crisis. Such a move – advocated by Reform UK and some sections of the Tory party – would have ‘other consequences that we think are not in our national interest’, she said.
Instead, the Government will propose changes to ‘tighten up the rules’ on how the treaty is implemented in the UK.
‘In the end, this is about how you strike the balance between human rights… and securing our borders. I do think that that balance isn’t in the right place at the moment,’ said Ms Mahmood.
‘That’s why we will come forward with changes to our domestic legislation and the guidance in terms of how we apply some of the convention rights legally here at home.’
Vowing to do ‘whatever it takes’ to stop small-boat crossings, she added: ‘I’m very clear that there has to be a strong approach to maintaining our borders, and that does mean saying to countries who do not take their citizens back that we’re not simply going to allow our laws to remain unenforced.’
However, the visa restrictions would be imposed using laws brought in by the Tories and first announced in 2021 by then-Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Her Nationality and Borders Act the following year created powers for ‘visa penalty provision’ against another country.
Mr Philp said last night: ‘This is shameless spin by Shabana Mahmood in her first week on the job. Visa sanctions have nothing whatsoever to do with the Five Eyes partnership… it’s ludicrous to pretend they do.’
Ms Mahmood was joined at the Five Eyes summit in central London yesterday by US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Canadian Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and New Zealand Minister of Defence Judith Collins.
The final text of the agreement will not be published until the end of the two-day summit later yesterday. It comes after the number of small-boat crossings reached more than 30,000 so far this year – up 37 per cent on the same point last year – including 1,097 on Saturday alone.
Labour announced a ‘one in, one out’ migrant returns deal with France nearly two months ago but the first removal is yet to take place. And a mooted change in French law to allow its police to stop boats in the water within 300m (328 yards) of the shore appears to have stalled – and was in even more doubt last night after the French government collapsed.
