THE government has overseen the biggest growth in the number of illegal arrivals since the Norman Conquest in 1066, Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith has said.

On the new “one in, one out” agreement with France, he told GB News: “One in, one out would be great, but that’s very, very far from the truth. This is something like 17 in, one possibly out.

“At that level, I think it’s unlikely to have the incentive effect that even the Home Secretary, who’s presided over the biggest growth in arrivals since the Norman Conquest, has ever contemplated. But let’s just unpack a tiny bit.

“Nobody should be coming here on a small boat from France. France is a safe country. It is a permanent five member of the United Nations, along with the United Kingdom, it gave human rights to the world.

“No one should be in fear of death or prosecution in France, they may have some interesting menu choices sometimes, but there’s no reason for people to leave France and come to the United Kingdom, and that insight is somehow lost on this government.

“It’s lost on the criminal justice system. It’s lost on the immigration tribunals, but people who come to this country illegally should all be returned, not some sort of lottery ticket where 90% of those who arrive somehow get to stay and the Home Secretary thinks that it’s in any way acceptable.”

He added: “If each one of those boats was carrying a small French artwork from their wonderful museums, do we not think that the French gendarmes would do a better job of puncturing their dinghies? In fact, the only dinghy we’ve ever seen punctured was in a photo shoot the day before President Macron came to meet our Prime Minister.

“So, no illegal arrivals, full deportation of those who have committed offences and are blocking up spaces in British jail, such that 16,000 criminals under this government have been released because they haven’t got the capacity because of foreign national offenders.

“And then you can look at all of the other ways by which people come here and decide what is the right level of immigration. But remember, your viewers can’t get a GP appointment. Your viewers’ children can’t get on the housing ladder, there are 9 million people of working age, adults in this United Kingdom sitting on benefits, and then immigrants coming to do those jobs. The system is broken.

“I think Keir Starmer is doing this because we and other parties are breathing down the necks of Labour MPs – this is the most unpopular government in history.

“One reason why is it’s clear that, far from saying he had a plan to smash the gangs, he had no plan at all to deal with illegal immigration. Just as Rachel Reeves had no plan to grow the economy, she thought she would just rock up and not be the Conservatives and somehow everything would be magical.

“Ever since, we’ve seen unemployment rise, the level of growth fall, and she’s gone on a complete borrowing spree that is really risking the United Kingdom’s debt rating and ability to continue to service our debts as they fall due. So they just as a government, they didn’t have a plan.

“And whilst 17 in, one out is maybe some sort of plan, it’s not an adequate plan for the sort of challenges that we’re seeing daily on our streets.”