Trump suggests military intervention to tackle small boats crisis
Speaking alongside Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the US president warned illegal immigration ‘destroys countries from within’.
Donald Trump suggested Sir Keir Starmer should involve the military in tackling the small boats crisis, warning illegal migration could “destroy” countries.
The US president said he had discussed the situation with Sir Keir at the Prime Minister’s country residence Chequers.
He highlighted his own record in securing the borders in the US and suggested the UK faced a similar challenge.
Setting out his own actions in the US, Mr Trump said: “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.”
He said: “The last three months we had zero – from millions of people a year ago, we had zero people enter our country illegally.”
Speaking alongside Sir Keir, he said: “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.”
Sir Keir pointed to action including the first return under the one in, one out deal with France which took place on Thursday morning, just hours before the Prime Minister’s talks with Mr Trump.
The Prime Minister said: “This is obviously an issue we’re taking incredibly seriously.”
There had been a “record number of returns” of people with no right to be in the UK.
“We struck the returns arrangement with France, and notwithstanding the challenges to that scheme, which you’ve seen in the last few days, a flight went off at 6.15am this morning, successfully returning someone under that scheme,” Sir Keir said.
“So that is an important step forward. Obviously, there’s no silver bullet here. There’s a range of things that need to be done, but given the challenges of returning people, it is important we’re able to prove it can be done.”
It was the “proof of concept” and “now we need to ramp that up at scale”, he added.
The American leader sharpened his criticism later, saying of Sir Keir in a Fox News interview: “I think he should take a very strong stand on the immigration. It’s really hurting him badly.”
