HOME Office minister Alex Norris has denied that the “one in, one out” deal with France aimed at stopping small boats has been a failure.
Speaking on GB News, he responded to a suggestion from Eamonn Holmes that the scheme has been a failure: “Eamonn, I again, I disagree with that, but on your point, there is so much to talk about. That’s why I’m always so keen to come on the show.
“And I’m grateful that you always put me on, and I’ll always want to have those conversations with you and with your viewers. This was a pilot. It was always small numbers, but designed to prove that you can operationalise between two neighbours, a system where people who come in ways they’re not supposed to can be returned.
“We are demonstrating that. It’s not finished yet, but we are demonstrating that that’s possible. It’s something we want to build out from. But it sits within…removals of more than 50,000 people since we took office. There are many ways to do it, of which our one in, one out deal is an important one.”
Asked if it was unpatriotic for Sir Keir Starmer to call for British troops to be investigated for alleged war crimes, Norris said: “No, no. I mean, first of all, on the story you reference, it’s an incredibly selective section of a book where Keir was asked, as a legal expert as to whether the ECHR could be used in those cases, and he gave his legal opinion.
“That’s not as it’s been reported. I would point to Keir’s record, as a litigator, as someone who stood up and worked with veterans, but also to your point on people wanting to join the armed forces. Well, actually, what we saw under the previous government was the Armed Forces reduced to the smallest number since the Napoleonic Wars.”
On the PM’s talks in China, he said: “It’s about finding balance, the balance that’s in the British people’s interests. Previously, we’ve gone from golden ages to ice ages, and everything in between. What we want is balance, because there are issues like trade, like tackling organised crime, where co-operating is in the British people’s interests. So we’ll do that.
“But there are also times where we have to challenge China, whether that’s on issues regarding the repression of the Uyghurs, whether it’s the crucial case of Jimmy Lai, a British national wrongly imprisoned, who we want to see released, but you can only do that if you’re in the room, and that’s what the Prime Minister was able to do overnight, because the alternative, which Kemi Badenoch seems to espouse, is instead to isolate ourselves, to just shout on social media.
“That’s not the best way of advancing the British people’s interests. That’s why we’re doing it as we’re doing it.”
