A Cabinet minister today dismissed Donald Trump‘s advice to use the military to stop Channel boats.
Peter Kyle insisted UK Border Force were responsible for keeping the country’s borders secure.
He said they were able to ‘call on’ the Royal Navy if necessary – but suggested the forces needed to remain ‘focused’ on ‘really key issues around the world’.
The comments came after the US President used a joint press conference yesterday to urge Keir Starmer to take tougher action on the small boat crossings.
Wrapping up his State Visit, Mr Trump warned that illegal immigration ‘destroys countries from within’ – as he highlighted his own success in securing America’s borders.
‘What I saw happening, with millions of people pouring into our country, I couldn’t stand to watch it, and we’ve done a great job.’
Keir Starmer boasted of a ‘renewed’ Special Relationship today as he runs the gauntlet of a joint press conference with Donald Trump
A small boat carrying migrants near Gravelines in France this morning
He said ‘the last three months we had zero – from millions of people a year ago, we had zero people enter our country illegally’.
Mr Trump added: ‘I think your situation is very similar. You have people coming in and I told the Prime Minister I would stop it, and it doesn’t matter if you call out the military, it doesn’t matter what means you use.
‘It destroys countries from within and we’re actually now removing a lot of the people that came into our country.’
However, touring broadcast studios this morning, Business Secretary Mr Kyle told BBC Breakfast: ‘Well, what he suggested was the military are used, but we have the UK Border Force that is now established and has been reinforced and bolstered and have new powers under this Government.
‘The Navy actually does have a working relationship with the UK Border Force, and the Navy can be called upon if needed.’
He added: ‘What we really need at the moment is our military focused on all of those really key issues around the world, directly relating to our national defence.’
Sir Keir is under huge pressure to get a grip on the flow of migrants making the perilous crossing, after a summer of protests about ‘asylum hotels’.
Hundreds more people headed for Britain today as just one was deported under Labour’s ‘one-in, one-out’ deal with Emmanuel Macron.
A single small boat migrant was flown to France on a commercial jet this morning, becoming only the second to be deported since the agreement was signed in July to great fanfare.
At the same time, at least three dinghies were seen making way out to sea from Gravelines beach in Calais, with migrants brought ashore at Dover by Border Force hours later.
Peter Kyle insisted UK Border Force were responsible for keeping the country’s borders secure
The migrant deported today was an Eritrean who said he was an ‘alleged trafficking victim’ – with his barristers asking for an ‘interim relief’ because deportation would allegedly risk multiple human rights breaches.
But his bid failed – and he was pictured this morning on an Air France flight from London Heathrow Airport, which left for Paris at 6.39am. After landing, the man was escorted out of the airport by two armed French police officers.
He is now expected to be transported to a migrant accommodation centre in France, where he will have eight days to either claim asylum or return to Eritrea. The migrant told BBC News he felt ‘very bad’ to be back in France and ‘didn’t know’ what to do.
The first migrant deported under the scheme, an Indian man, was flown from London to Paris yesterday morning after three days of legal limbo.
