Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for Britain to join the EU’s new asylum framework, arguing that Brexit has weakened the UK’s ability to tackle small boat crossings across the Channel.
The proposal would seek to reconnect Britain with elements of the bloc’s migration system, including rules allowing asylum seekers to be returned to the first EU country they entered. Davey said the arrangement would remove a key incentive for migrants and disrupt the criminal gangs organising crossings.
The Liberal Democrat leader accused the Conservatives and Reform UK of having “broken our borders” through Brexit and said both parties should “hang their heads in shame”.
The proposal represents a significant shift in the debate over Channel migration, with the Liberal Democrats arguing that closer co-operation with Brussels rather than greater confrontation with France offers the most credible route to reducing crossings.
But the policy faces questions over whether it would deliver substantially higher returns.
Under the former Dublin system, which governed asylum responsibility while Britain was an EU member, relatively few migrants were transferred back to other European countries. Research by the Migration Observatory found an average of about 560 returns a year between 2008 and 2020.
The proposal has also drawn attacks from Reform UK and migration campaigners, who argue that returning to elements of the EU asylum system would compromise Britain’s control over migration.
The Conservatives and Reform have instead advocated tougher enforcement, including expanded detention and deportation powers and greater use of the military to intercept Channel crossings.
The Government has taken a more cautious position, saying that reducing illegal migration requires closer co-operation with European partners while pointing to more than 70,000 removals of people with no right to remain.
More than 14,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year, although arrivals are reported to be 43 per cent lower than at the same point last year.
The political challenge for Davey is that public opinion appears divided over the means of tackling the crisis. Recent polling found 41 per cent of Britons favoured standing up more forcefully to France, compared with 35 per cent who preferred closer cross-Channel co-operation.
The Liberal Democrat plan therefore risks turning the small boats issue into another Brexit argument — precisely as the party seeks to make the case that Britain’s post-EU arrangements are part of the problem.
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