Labour must take back control to secure borders

Lucy Powell, the education secretary and deputy Labour leader, was being pressed in a BBC interview to explain why two small boats managed to get across the Channel without being intercepted, and she finally reacted as a human being rather than a politician: “We can’t stop everything all of the time.”

It was an instant quotation for the ages, a pure “gaffe” — something that is true but which is not sensible to say, according to The Independent.

It is a statement of the obvious to say that no government could guarantee to stop all the boats. The Conservatives couldn’t do it, and would not be able to do it next time, even if, as planned, they did junk the European Convention on Human Rights.

Nigel Farage would not be able to do it, despite the issue being possibly the main driver of his party’s support. His policy is essentially to go to war with France over the attempted dumping of migrants on the quayside at Calais.

And even if a government could reduce the numbers significantly, the recent undetected crossings confirm that some boats will still make it to these shores. Some boats are now covering longer distances further away from the narrowest part of the Channel, making it harder to spot them.

Ms Powell’s mistake, though, was to imply that there was nothing that the government could do. Andy Burnham gave a different answer when he was asked about the boats at his joint news conference with Donald Trump in New York. He said that crossings were down by 50 per cent, and that many people had not realised how much progress had been made.

That was very much a politician’s answer, in that it was partly true, but claimed too much credit for the reduction in numbers this year, which is mostly to do with lower numbers across Europe rather than anything the British and French governments have done.

Mr Burnham’s words were mocked by the arrival of 781 migrants on 10 boats on Wednesday, the highest number on a single day this year.

And even a halving in overall numbers would mean that too many uninvited arrivals were still coming. The honest answer that the British people want to hear is that the government is committed to doing more – and that it has ideas that will work. There are things that can be done that do not involve the counterproductive tearing-up of human rights treaties or threatening naval conflict with our neighbours.

There is more that can be achieved, for example, by working more closely with France and other members of the European Union. The “one in, one out” deal with France established the principle that migrants can be returned to France. In the scheme’s first year of operation, only 1,400, or 5 per cent, of those arriving by small boat were returned, and the scheme is set to expire next week.

But it has shown that returns, balanced by the UK’s acceptance of genuine refugees, are possible and could be scaled up, preferably on an EU-wide basis.

Ms Powell’s comment was so damaging because it suggested that the government is powerless, reinforcing the narrative that sustains the vigilantism of Daniel Thomas — “Danny Tommo” — and the balaclava-wearing protesters who have descended on Dover, Portsmouth and Gosport.

The deputy Labour leader appeared to contradict Mr Burnham, who said in an interview with the New Statesman this week that his premiership was “about control”. He said: “If you strip it back, and all the fluff and, you know, the verbiage, you can actually strip it back to one word, which is control.”