James Cleverly refuses to say how UK-France deal on asylum seekers will have an effect on numbers crossing Channel
Rishi Sunak will probably be arriving in Bali later for the G20 summit, however he has been talking to the journalists travelling with him on his airplane a few deal introduced this morning with France, to extend cooperation on tackling individuals utilizing small boats to cross the Channel. Right here is our story, by my colleagues Jessica Elgot (who’s with Sunak) and Peter Walker.
Sunak advised reporters there was no “single factor” that might resolve the small boats drawback, however he stated he was “assured we are able to convey the numbers down over time”.
However the authorities received’t say what distinction it expects the take care of the French introduced immediately to make. James Cleverly, the overseas secretary, has been giving interviews this morning and he has been dodging questions on this level. On the At this time programme he stated that cooperation with the French was already making a distinction and that 29,000 individuals had been stopped from attending to the UK this 12 months – nearly twice as many as in earlier years. However when At this time’s Mishal Husain requested him what impression the brand new settlement was more likely to have on the variety of crossings (“I’m certain that you’ve a method of measuring that,” she stated, optimistically), Cleverly declined to present a determine. He replied:
It’s actually vital you perceive that we’re we’re coping with an evolving state of affairs … It’s very, very tough to foretell actual numbers. It is determined by so many variables, however the vital factor is that we’re working extra intently [with the French] …. extra French officers on the seashores as a direct results of the settlement that the house secretary and the French inside minister have signed immediately.
I’ll publish extra from his interviews shortly.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
11.30am: Downing Road holds a foyer briefing.
12.45pm: Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, provides the keynote speech on the Centre for Coverage Research Margaret Thatcher Convention on Progress.
2.30pm: Dwelling Workplace questions within the Commons.
4pm: James Cleverly, the overseas secretary, provides proof to the Commons overseas affairs committee.
attempt to monitor the feedback under the road (BTL) however it’s unimaginable to learn all of them. When you have a direct query, do embrace “Andrew” in it someplace and I’m extra more likely to discover it. I do attempt to reply questions and, if they’re of common curiosity, I’ll publish the query and reply above the road (ATL), though I can’t promise to do that for everybody.
If you wish to entice my consideration shortly, it’s in all probability higher to make use of Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you’ll be able to electronic mail me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com

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Sadiq Khan dismisses UK-France small boats deal as ‘crimson meat’ for public that doesn’t deal with explanation for drawback
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has dismissed the UK-France small boats deal as “crimson meat” for the general public that doesn’t deal with explanation for the issue. He advised Occasions Radio:
My concern is what the federal government’s doing immediately is form of throwing some crimson meat to people who find themselves involved about migration and never addressing the core concern we’ve had over the past 11 months, 40,000 individuals crossing the Channel in little boats.
So this powerful rhetoric clearly isn’t working by itself.
You’ve bought to have shut relations with France, colleagues within the European Union, with nations in north Africa, you’ve bought to deal at supply with these people who find themselves enjoying on the distress of asylum seekers and refugees in relation to charging them a fortune.
Cleverly claims most individuals making an attempt to get to UK in small boats are financial migrants
In an article within the Sunday Telegraph yesterday Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, stated that asylum seekers shouldn’t be staying in luxurious accommodations. Echoing feedback made by his boss, Suella Braverman, the house secretary, who lately complained about migrants being housed in four-star hotels, Jenrick stated:
Human decency must be accompanied by hard-headed frequent sense: unlawful immigrants are not entitled to luxury hotels. Circumstances within the UK are nearly at all times higher than in neighbouring nations, which helps clarify why the UK is a vacation spot of selection for financial migrants on the continent “asylum procuring”.
“Hotel Britain” must end, and get replaced with easy, practical lodging that doesn’t create an extra pull issue.
In an interview this morning James Cleverly, the overseas secretary, defended Jenrick’s feedback, saying it was vital to cut back the “pull issue” that made the UK engaging to financial migrants. He additionally claimed that most individuals making an attempt to get to the UK have been financial migrants. He advised BBC Breakfast:
Most of the individuals, the majority of individuals trying to get to the UK, are financial migrants reasonably than fleeing persecution or warfare. They’re in search of a greater life. I get that, I perceive that, the UK is an excellent place to dwell.
However it’s as a result of they understand the UK to be a really beneficiant nation, that’s a part of the pull issue.
Latest Home Office figures undermine claims that the majority of these crossing the Channel in small boats are financial migrants, reasonably than individuals with a real motive to hunt asylum. Of the asylum circumstances that have been determined within the 12 months ending in June 2022, 76% preliminary selections resulted in asylum, or an alternate type of depart to stay, being granted. That’s the highest determine since 1990, when 82% of preliminary purposes have been granted.
Fifth of hospitality corporations have lower buying and selling hours to save lots of power prices, ONS says
Over a fifth of hospitality corporations have lower their hours over the previous three months in a bid to chop power prices, the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics has revealed.
The ONS has launched a report saying foods and drinks service corporations, equivalent to pubs, eating places and bars, are extra doubtless than corporations in some other sector to chop buying and selling to take care of mammoth will increase in power payments.
It says 21% of corporations within the sector have lower their buying and selling hours consequently, even when they’re nonetheless working for a similar variety of days.
In the meantime, 6% of companies within the sector say they’ve lower buying and selling by two or extra days per week over the previous three months.

Suella Braverman has been tweeting concerning the new small boats take care of the French.
At this time, I signed an settlement with my pal @GDarmanin in Paris to ramp up our co-ordination to deal with unlawful immigration. Our new deal will see UK officers embedded in French operations for the primary time & a 40% enhance in French officers patrolling in northern France 1/2 pic.twitter.com/h5a9rRdW1u
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) November 14, 2022
Ce n’est qu’en travaillant ensemble que nous pouvons espérer résoudre ce problème complexe. Je voulais remercier Gérald et son équipe pour leur travail et leur coopération. 🇬🇧🇫🇷
2/2— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) November 14, 2022
And these are from her French reverse quantity, Gérald Darminin.
👉🏼Engagement du Royaume-Uni à verser 72,2 hundreds of thousands d’euros pour lutter contre l’immigration clandestine
👉🏼augmentation de 40% des effectifs à la frontière
👉🏼financement de nouveaux équipements de surveillance
👉🏼Renforcement de la coordination et du partage d’info pic.twitter.com/D9HEeRjNRF— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) November 14, 2022
Some 853 individuals have been detected crossing the English Channel in small boats on Sunday, the Ministry of Defence stated. It follows 972 crossings on Saturday.
As PA Media reviews, the cumulative variety of crossings this 12 months now stands at a provisional whole of 41,738.
Whole crossings final 12 months have been 28,526.
There have been 26 boats detected on Sunday, which suggests a mean of round 33 individuals crossed the Channel per boat.
Lucy Moreton, an official with the ISU, the union for borders, immigration and customs employees, advised Occasions Radio the brand new UK-France deal on asylum seekers wouldn’t deal with the core drawback.
She stated that interrupting migrants to “simply allow them to go to attempt once more” wouldn’t have the required impression and nothing within the deal urged that “the French are going to maneuver away from that place”. She went on:
The sticking factors simply merely haven’t been addressed.
As PA Media reviews, the ISU skilled officer added that intercepting migrants so they don’t attempt to get to the UK once more was not one thing the French “have ever wished to do”, as from the French perspective “they’re going the precise method and it’s totally comprehensible that they don’t seem to be very eager to interrupt that”.
She stated the UK wanted to take care of the difficulty itself by resourcing “the court docket system much better than it has been” with a view to course of claims in a shorter house of time.
As my colleague Rajeev Syal reviews, greater than 40,000 individuals in search of asylum within the UK have waited between one and three years for a call on their declare, new figures present.
Suella Braverman, the house secretary, has signed the brand new UK-France settlement on Channel crossings along with her French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, this morning. She stated that it wasn’t a fast repair, however that it will result in a big enhance within the variety of French officers patrolling seashores. She stated:
We should do every thing we are able to to cease individuals making these harmful journeys and crack down on the felony gangs.
This can be a international problem requiring international options, and it’s within the pursuits of each the UK and French governments to work collectively to resolve this advanced drawback.
There aren’t any fast fixes however this new association will imply we are able to considerably enhance the variety of French gendarmes patrolling the seashores in northern France and guarantee UK and French officers are working hand in hand to cease the individuals smugglers.

James Cleverly refuses to say how UK-France deal on asylum seekers will have an effect on numbers crossing Channel
Rishi Sunak will probably be arriving in Bali later for the G20 summit, however he has been talking to the journalists travelling with him on his airplane a few deal introduced this morning with France, to extend cooperation on tackling individuals utilizing small boats to cross the Channel. Right here is our story, by my colleagues Jessica Elgot (who’s with Sunak) and Peter Walker.
Sunak advised reporters there was no “single factor” that might resolve the small boats drawback, however he stated he was “assured we are able to convey the numbers down over time”.
However the authorities received’t say what distinction it expects the take care of the French introduced immediately to make. James Cleverly, the overseas secretary, has been giving interviews this morning and he has been dodging questions on this level. On the At this time programme he stated that cooperation with the French was already making a distinction and that 29,000 individuals had been stopped from attending to the UK this 12 months – nearly twice as many as in earlier years. However when At this time’s Mishal Husain requested him what impression the brand new settlement was more likely to have on the variety of crossings (“I’m certain that you’ve a method of measuring that,” she stated, optimistically), Cleverly declined to present a determine. He replied:
It’s actually vital you perceive that we’re we’re coping with an evolving state of affairs … It’s very, very tough to foretell actual numbers. It is determined by so many variables, however the vital factor is that we’re working extra intently [with the French] …. extra French officers on the seashores as a direct results of the settlement that the house secretary and the French inside minister have signed immediately.
I’ll publish extra from his interviews shortly.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
11.30am: Downing Road holds a foyer briefing.
12.45pm: Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, provides the keynote speech on the Centre for Coverage Research Margaret Thatcher Convention on Progress.
2.30pm: Dwelling Workplace questions within the Commons.
4pm: James Cleverly, the overseas secretary, provides proof to the Commons overseas affairs committee.
attempt to monitor the feedback under the road (BTL) however it’s unimaginable to learn all of them. When you have a direct query, do embrace “Andrew” in it someplace and I’m extra more likely to discover it. I do attempt to reply questions and, if they’re of common curiosity, I’ll publish the query and reply above the road (ATL), though I can’t promise to do that for everybody.
If you wish to entice my consideration shortly, it’s in all probability higher to make use of Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you’ll be able to electronic mail me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
