RISHI Sunak came out swinging on tackling illegal immigration – demanding to know if Labour would do a deal with the Taliban.
The Prime Minister took Sir Keir Starmer to task on stopping small boat Channel crossings and how to send back rejected asylum seekers.
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He called out his opponent on how he would make deals with the Taliban in Afghanistan or Iran‘s leaders to send migrants from those countries back.
The PM needed a big performance on the night to shore up his core support and claw back Tories who have switched to Reform.
He said: “Will you sit down with the Ayatollahs? Are you going to try to do a deal with the Taliban? It’s completely nonsensical – you are taking people for fools.”
The PM received a round of applause when he said illegal immigrants would be “out on our streets” under a Labour government.
He also used a line from Steven Spielberg’s classic Jaws to warn voters about Sir Keir’s migration policy.
He declared: “If Labour win, the people smugglers are going to need a bigger boat.
“Don’t surrender our borders to the Labour Party.”
Meanwhile, Sir Keir pointed out that record numbers of migrants are crossing the Channel in small boats under the Tories.
He replied: “Record numbers coming across the Channel and he says it’s a deterrent, there are a few hundred that will go on a flight to Rwanda, a huge expense to taxpayers. There are tens of thousands, 15,000 people have come since Rishi Sunak has been Prime Minister.”
A senior Tory source last night said: “Sir Keir folded like a deckchair when it came to immigration.”
Home Secretary James Cleverly earlier today said Labour and Reform have the “same problem” when it comes to migration in that they “don’t have a plan”.
Asked by reporters on the campaign trail about the number of small boat crossings in the Channel under the Tories, the Home Secretary said: “Saying illegal migration is too high is true. That’s the easy bit. Doing something about it is what you have to do and we have taken action.”
He claimed people across the Channel “are praying for a Labour government because they have heard that a Labour government would remove the Rwanda deterrent”, a reference to the Conservatives’ stalled deportation policy.
