Government: UK-France ties key to tackling migration

ODN

Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds says the UK’s relationship with France is stronger than ever, with close cooperation on trade, defence and illegal migration. He defends the Government’s efforts to tackle Channel crossings, highlighting crackdowns on illegal working and new laws targeting people smugglers. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00What we have is the relationship between France and Britain, as strong as it has ever been.

00:06I think what you're going to see are three things.

00:08Firstly, on trade. We had over £100 billion worth of trade with France last year,

00:14and we're already seeing the announcement from EDF of taking a 12.5% stake in Sizewell Sea,

00:20which is good for jobs, good for investment here in the United Kingdom.

00:23Secondly, the relationship on defence and security, and particularly very close working

00:28between the Prime Minister and the President on the situation in Ukraine.

00:33And then thirdly, yes, the deepening of cooperation on illegal migration,

00:37which is absolutely critical, by the way, to tackling the issue of small boats in the English Channel.

00:40There is a broader point about pull factors which are absolutely critical.

00:44That is why this government has cracked down on illegal working.

00:48There's been over 7,000 arrests for that.

00:52But this is a complex issue. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

00:56And it's important that we are working, both with France, bilaterally, on our law enforcement cooperation,

01:03that we are working with other European countries to tackle upstream the roots of the people smugglers.

01:08I've been recently in Poland, recently in Bulgaria, seeing that happening.

01:12But also legislation here in the United Kingdom.

01:14We have legislation, our Borders Bill, that is giving our police and law enforcement equivalent powers

01:20to tackling counter-terrorism, to tackle people smuggling.

01:24That's the serious work of getting on and tackling this issue.

01:27Not performative politics, not gimmicks.

01:29Conservatives and Reform are both opposing that bill in the House of Commons.

01:33They should be explaining to people why they're doing that.

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