Labour say plan is a ‘desperate attempt to distract from sleaze’ while a retired commander says it ‘lacks substance’
The political saliency of the UK’s policies around illegal migration has risen since tens of thousands of people from Morocco crossed in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta last week, causing dozens of people to die (including by drowning or being crushed) and triggered a political crisis for Madrid. Spanish officials have subsequently said that almost all those who reached Ceuta on Thursday have since returned.
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, said his party’s small boats plan was partly inspired by what he saw in Ceuta. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning:
I saw soldiers using pepper spray into interacting directly with migrants that were acting in a disorderly fashion.
And in using the military, what I saw was Spain was able to remove, effectively send back, what looked like north of 40,000 illegal migrants in the space of a day.
I truly believe there could be sufficient common ground for our two movements to cooperate collectively, destroy the looming leftwing alliance that will finish off what hope remains for this country.
In my view, failing to even try because of our own personal difficulties is simply not an option. Now is the time to put our differences aside and cooperate for the good of the country that we all love.
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