Keir Starmer’s migration strategy

As dozens of leaders gathered at Blenheim Palace last week for the fourth European Political Community, a British border force vessel rescued 13 migrants trying to cross the English Channel and returned them to France for the first time. It doesn’t mean a change in policy – among the assembled leaders was France’s Emmanuel Macron, who has rebuffed attempts at a returns agreement with the UK. But the gathering sparked hope that improved UK-EU relations will help navigate an issue that is politically damaging for politicians across the continent. Starmer’s choice of Macron as his post-summit dinner companion is also noteworthy, building on months of bridge-building between the two sides as they look to reset the France-UK relationship, often undermined by combative Conservative leaders.

Keir Starmer used the summit to make some key announcements, notably:

• An £84 million funding package for countries in Africa and the Middle East, to be rolled out over the next three years, to “address the factors that drive people into small boats”;
• law enforcement agreements with Slovenia and Slovakia to tackle serious organised crime and people trafficking;
• redeploying 100 Home Office employees to a ‘rapid returns unit’ to speed up asylum processing claims;
• floating the idea of Britain processing claims offshore, after a meeting with Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, whose country processes asylum claims on behalf of Italy, and;
• acknowledged a returns agreement – which may see the UK agree to take a certain number of migrants – was on the horizon, but would only come “into being at the end of the process”.

Small change for small boats. The £84 million funding package, while welcome, is small change given the scale of the issue it seeks to solve.

Four years ago the government reduced its overseas aid spend as a proportion of GDP from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent. This has not been reversed. For context:

• In 2023, the UK’s overseas development aid (ODA) was £15.4 billion.
• In the financial year 2022-2023, the Home Office had a total budget of £20 billion.
• More than £270 million was spent on the previous government’s Rwanda scheme.