Ed Davey has perfectly explained how Nigel Farage and the Tories “caused the small boats crisis” through their support of Brexit.
Few things are dominating the political sphere and filling column inches quite like immigration and small boats crossing the Channel at the moment.
But the irony of the issue as that the people shouting loudest about it – and using it to fuel wider anti-immigrant rhetoric – are the ones responsible for causing it.
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In recent months, an increasing number of people have pointed out to the likes of Farage that it was the Brexit he and others campaigned so hard for that has prompted an increase in the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has been one of the most vocal people on the topic, and during a recent appearance on LBC, he once again outlined why Farage and the Tories are to blame for the crisis.
He said it is “really important to push back against people like Nigel Farage and the Conservatives.”
Davey continued: “Prior to Brexit, we had a return agreement with 27 European countries under what was called the Dublin convention.”
“That acted as a real deterrent, but now we’re out of the EU it’s acting as a magnet, because asylum seekers going to one European country know they can’t go to another European country because they will be returned under European law.
“But they’re not able to be returned by the UK.”
He continued: “So Brexit has not only got rid of that deterrent, it’s actually attracting more people.
“So I would argue very strongly that the Conservatives and Nigel Farage, the champions of Brexit, caused the small boat crisis themselves, and it’s about time that we held them to account.”