Long and the short of it: migration on agenda as Starmer gathers European leaders at Blenheim

BRITAIN will work with the European Union to tackle people smuggling across the Channel and “the impulse” migrants have to leave their homes, the Foreign Secretary said today ahead of a summit of leaders at Blenheim Palace.

- Rachael Burford

David Lammy suggested the UK could use some of its foreign aid budget to make it more attractive for people to stay in their countries, rather than seeking a better life in Britain. Money could particularly be spent “in the Horn of Africa”, he said.

“It is right that we should work with our European partners upstream in the countries that are most affected by smuggling gangs and also by the impulse to leave,” Mr Lammy told Sky News. “That means jobs and opportunities and skills in those countries and of course it means working with other European partners. That is not something that the UK can do alone and of course, we have a budget which we can utilise, particularly in the Horn of Africa, with other European partners.”