Tories slam Starmer’s small boats deal with China as a ‘gimmick’
CONSERVATIVE Party deputy chairman Matt Vickers has described the Prime Minister’s announcement of a deal with China on engines for small boats as a “gimmick”.
He told GB News: “I think everybody at home will take this as what it is. They will see it for the gimmick. I mean, it’s such a remote situation that actually it’s a bit like the boomerang, one in, one out scheme, the boomerang scheme, where, I think, since they signed that deal, about 99.5% of the people who’ve arrived in the country, 21,000 people have arrived in the country, the very, very, very vast majority have got to stay.
“But this gimmick that we’re hearing today from China, everybody at home knows the only way to solve this problem is for those people who get in those boats to know they will not be allowed to stay in this country. That’s what has to happen.
“The National Crime Agency will tell you we have to have a deterrent. We have to tell people that if you break into this country, you will not get to stay. No ifs, no buts, that’s how we solve it. It’s common sense. We know it worked because we saw it happen when we had the agreement with Albania.
“Albania is one of the top places from which people are arriving. The minute those people started going home, the number of them arrived in the country fell by 93%. We need to leave the ECHR. Those people who break into this country need to be detained and deported. No ifs, no buts.”
On Iran, he said: “So Iran, a huge, huge concern. They’re undermining regional stability. They’re sponsoring terrorism. They’re failing to engage in any meaningful way with the international community, and now we’ve got the concerns about this nuclear program.
“I don’t think the UK should be looking for conflict actively, but we’ve got to stand up for our national interest, and I hope that this government is engaging with the US and engaging with Iran in the same way that it is with China. We should be working with our allies to protect our national security, and what that means in terms of Iran and its nuclear program.”
He also called on Sir Keir Starmer to apologise for his role in investigating British troops over alleged war crimes: “I think anybody who looks at his past on this, whether you think about the fact that this was a guy who was campaigning against the deportation of foreign criminals, whether you look at what’s going on with Northern Ireland veterans in there, and the fact that pensioners who’ve served in our armed forces, who put their lives on the line for this country, are being dragged through the court, and he’s willing to hand them over.
“It’s disastrous. He should apologise for it; it’s an absolute disgrace. He is not serving this country’s interests.”
