Keir Starmer took a not-so-subtle dig at Nigel Farage during his press conference with Emmanuel Macron.
This week, Starmer and the French president announced a migrant return deal after crunch talks in London.
Under the plans – which will start as a pilot scheme – people who arrive by small boat will be sent back to France, while people with a legitimate claim to settle in the UK will arrive in exchange.
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Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Starmer said the scheme will “finally turn the tables” on the small boats crisis.
The prime minister said a serious response was needed to confront the issue instead of the ‘performative politics of easy answers.’
Starmer then pointed out how whilst he and Macron had been working to solve the problem, some people had ‘simply been taking pictures of the problem.’
This was almost certainly a swipe at Farage who decided to get on a boat and watch as migrants crossed in small boats.
Also during the news conference, Macron said Brits had been “sold a lie” by Brexit, which he claimed had worsened the migration crisis for the UK.
Macron explained how by leaving the EU, Britain had been stripped of access to an EU-wide returns agreement.
He said Brexit had “created an incentive to make the crossing, the precise opposite of what Brexit had promised.”
According to French reports, the migrant return scheme will initially see a maximum of 50 people a week returned to France.
Starmer said the threat of being sent back to France would act as a deterrent, but made clear that “genuine asylum seekers” will still be accepted by the UK.
He said: “For the very first time, migrants arriving via small boat will be detained and returned to France in short order.
“Now, I know some people will still ask why should we take anyone in? So let me address that directly. We accept genuine asylum seekers because it is right that we offer a haven to those in most dire need.
“But there is also something else here, something more practical. Which is that we simply cannot solve a challenge like stopping the boats by acting alone and telling our allies that we won’t play ball.
“That is why today’s agreement is so important. There is no silver bullet here, but with a united effort, new tactics and a new level of intent, we can finally turn the tables.”