Keir Starmer’s plan for a return deal with the EU if he wins power would “probably” mean Britain would take a quota on accepting asylum seekers, a French politician has warned.
French MEP Fabienne Keller said that if Britain wanted to implement the opposition leader’s plan, it would have to contribute financially to a Europe-wide effort to tackle immigration. Ms Keller was speaking as EU countries reached an agreement to review legislation on dealing with asylum seekers and migrants.
The reform will include border detention centres, faster screening of illegal arrivals, accelerated deportation of rejected asylum seekers and a solidarity mechanism to take pressure off southern countries experiencing large influxes of refugees.
Ms Keller, whose Renew Europe team led the negotiations, said it would be “wonderful” if a similar deal was struck with the UK, adding:
“Brexit is a trauma for us.”
Asked about an agreement under a possible Starmer government, she said it would “probably” involve the UK accepting a quota for EU migrant arrivals and making a financial contribution, “as is the case with all member states”.
The Tories suggested that Labour’s plan to join an EU-wide migrant return agreement would mean “an increase in the number of illegal migrants arriving in the UK by tens of thousands”. However, Labour rejected his comments and said the party “will not join any EU quota scheme”.
In the autumn, Sir Keir said that if he became prime minister he would push for an EU-wide agreement on the return of asylum seekers arriving in the UK. Labour has since said the scheme would not be part of the existing scheme and would not be quota-based.
The EU decided to overhaul its asylum system to spread the cost and work of accepting migrants more evenly across the bloc. The plan includes increasing the number of detention centres at the border and speeding up deportations in an attempt to limit the number of people arriving.
The new EU pact on migration and asylum is due to come into force next year when it is formally adopted by the European Council and the European Parliament.
