The French government plans to authorise interventions to halt small boats at sea before they pick up people attempting to reach the UK after pressure from Keir Starmer.

It is understood that French security forces will target empty “taxi boats”, or large dinghies, before they pick up passengers from beaches to be taken to the UK.

According to the Paris-based newspaper Le Monde, Starmer wrote to President Emmanuel Macron urging him to back the plan and saying we currently “have no effective deterrent” in the Channel. Asylum seekers in UK go on hunger strike over ‘one in, one out’ removals Read more

The development is the latest twist in the ongoing wrangle between the two governments over how to stop unauthorised small boat journeys. The growing number of people arriving in the UK i

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