In a heated exchange between the two leaders, Sunak pushed Starmer on what he would do with the illegal migrants coming into the UK. Sunak pointed to his Rwanda plan, repeatedly asking Starmer “what will you do with them?”. Starmer’s response was a mere“we will process them”. Noting that “these people come from Iran, Syria and Afghanistan”, Sunak responded:

“Are you going to sit down with the Iranian Ayatollahs? … To try and do a deal with the Taliban? It’s completely nonsensical what you’re saying. You’re taking people for fools.”

Cue huge applause from the audience…

As Starmer looks set to grab the keys Downing Street, the level of disingenuousness in his record is becoming clear. In a clear pitch to the left to win the leadership, he pledged to “end indefinite detention” for immigrants, and close Yarl’s Wood detention centre – an obsessive cause of the far left mainly trumpeted by Corbynista John McDonnell. Now Starmer is claiming to be tough on immigration. He may well have cynically changed position, but does Labour ever really change?

While Sunak pulls out another desperate policy pledge, promising to cap the the number of visas available to migrants each year. The devil’s in the detail, and so far there aren’t any yet…

Guido reminds his readers of the Tories’ track record on immigration targets. From 2020 to 2023, net migration has added at least 2 million people to the population of the UK – the equivalent of a 3% population increase. Derbyshire grilled Tory Chairman on Newsnight the other night on the Tories’ previous pledges in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 to bring down net migration by tens of thousands. Holden had to admit, they never delivered on their promises…

Starmer has said if he gets the keys to Downing Street, the foreign aid budget would not be used to cover the costs of asylum seekers’ hotel accommodations. Though he admitted that this change wouldn’t take effect right away…

Speaking to reporters in Wales, the Labour leader said:

“If we were to carry on with this Government, we would have the best part of 100,000 asylum seekers in this country, none of whom are being processed….we can’t clear the hotels in 24 hours, that’s not realistic”.

In his usual wishy-washy way, he avoided saying what Labour would actually do to stop to clear the hotels. No plan…?

Reform UK’s honorary leader Nigel Farage has just delivered his keynote speech in Dover, perhaps a warm-up for the debate with Sunak he’s asked for. The new slogan: Rishi Can’t Stop the Boats..

Nigel spoke on his well-versed topic: immigration, saying “invasion is the right word” for it, and it is a “national security issue“. Not only is Rishi – “a frightened rabbit” – doing nothing to stop the boats, Labour are actively seeking out the Muslim vote. He referenced Guido’s story yesterday which revealed Rayner “begging” Muslim voters to support Labour…

One of Farage’s solutions to the crisis is to have “a proper conversation with President Macron“; the French navy must stop escorting the boats across the Channel. He notes that the French will “respect firmness“, and if they don’t cooperate, “We may have to send in the Royal Marines and send some people back to the beaches of France“. He also says that leaving the ECHR is another solution. What will the Tories say on that…

Shadow Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was chatting last night on GB News about Labour’s gold-plated plan for solving illegal migration. Which apparently involves letting in tens of thousands more people…

Labour says that it will process the list of arrivals since the Illegal Migration Act passed last year whose claim is designated by the Home Office as “inadmissible” – Patrick Christys pointed out that, according to estimates, somewhere between 90,000 and 115,000 people would be entitled to claim asylum if that processing was carried out without deportations. Reynolds seemed to let the cat out of the bag with his response:

“Well, what’s the alternative? Keeping them in hotels at the cost of 18 million pounds, £8 million a day, indefinitely? They’re going to have to reply. And if they haven’t got a right to be in the UK, they’ve got to go. And if they have a right to be in the UK, if we want to accept those people, we can integrate them into British society and they can benefit from putting something back into the UK rather than just be a cost in the halfway house we have at the minute.“

Labour has to repeal or disapply chunks of the Illegal Migration Act to force the Home Office to process the inadmissible claims. An asylum amnesty: that doesn’t sound much like a deterrent…