Robert Jenrick has taken aim at French President Emmanuel Macron and claimed that France possesses the power to end Channel crossings as soon as tomorrow.The Shadow Justice Secretary told GB News: "If they wanted, they could stop the small boats, frankly, tomorrow, if they got their gendarmes out on the beaches, into the shallow waters, turning back the boats, as some of our other neighbours do, like the Belgians, for example."FULL STORY HERE.
00:00Well, welcome back. And we're now joined by the Shadow Justice Secretary, Robert Jenrick.
00:06Good morning, Robert. Thank you for joining us. Of course, Robert Jenrick's been very vocal about the issue of migration.
00:14Here he is. I think we have him now. Good morning, Robert. Thank you for joining us.
00:18Good morning. Good morning. Now, what do you make of President Macron's comments about the pull factors within Britain?
00:26This idea that illegal immigrants can come over here, can get jobs on the black market.
00:30And that actually, unless we sort out those pull factors, there's a limit to what the French can do to help us with our small boats problem.
00:39Well, look, it's important that we have good relations with our nearest neighbour, France.
00:46But I think Macron and the French could be doing so much more to help us if they wanted.
00:52They could stop the small boats, frankly, tomorrow if they got their gendarmes out on the beaches into the shallow waters,
00:59turning back the boats, as some of our other neighbours do, like the Belgians, for example.
01:04But I don't think we should just be leaving this to the kindness of strangers.
01:08We've got to have our own sovereign deterrent. That's why I was a proponent of Rwanda.
01:13That's why I feel we have to have a very simple system of our own that does not rely on anyone else,
01:19which is if you come here illegally, you're detained and you're deported back home to your own country or to a safe third country in hours and days, not months and years.
01:31Yes, we should also be tackling the pull factors to the UK.
01:35You know, you should not be able to work in the black market.
01:38That's why we've got to stop all of those Uber and Deliveroo drivers who are not have no legal right to be working in the UK.
01:45That's why, frankly, we should not be housing illegal migrants in hotels living the life of Riley
01:51when they should be being in detained accommodation and then sent back home as quickly as possible.
01:56But the absolute heart of the issue is not what happens when you're here,
02:01is that you should never be allowed to stay in the UK and you should be removed as quickly as possible
02:06so you don't get a foothold in the UK.
02:09Do you know what? It sounds to me as if Macron also is in favour of your Rwanda solution.
02:21Well, we don't know exactly what this potential deal is that is being discussed between the government and President Macron.
02:29And we're going to have to wait and see what the details of that actually are.
02:32If it is true that the Prime Minister is proposing some kind of deterrent,
02:36then that's great that he's had a Damascene conversion because it was not so long ago that he was scrapping Rwanda.
02:42And the Rwanda scheme was by far and away the best option to create a proper deterrent,
02:48break the business model of the people smuggling gangs.
02:51That is what we actually need.
02:53We'll wait and see whatever is proposed, whether that happens.
02:56We've been led up this path before by President Macron and he's not fulfilled his promises in the past.
03:01We've spent 800 million quid in recent times trying to persuade the French to actually do something on the beaches.
03:07So let's wait and see what happens.
03:09But it clearly would be much better if we, the United Kingdom, came up with our own sovereign deterrent,
03:15whether that's Rwanda or another scheme,
03:17and one which actually got on, detained people, removed them as swiftly as possible when they arrived here in the UK.
