'Nigel Farage should apologise for his role in small boats crisis' demand

Nigel Farage should apologise for his role in causing the small boat crisis, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has demanded.

Sir Ed, speaking at his party's conference in Bournemouth, called for the Reform leader to be "exposed for his failures". He pointed to the loss of a returns agreement when Britain left the European Union - which critics believe gave a huge boost to traffickers responsible for Channel crossings.

It comes a day after an event at the conference heard politicians should start referring to small boats as "Brexit boats". Sir Ed told Good Morning Britain : "I'm afraid Nigel Farage should be apologising for helping cause this problem in the first place.

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"Before Brexit we didn't have a small boats problem because we had 27 return agreements with European Union countries and we could return people.

"But thanks to Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and the Conservatives, we tore up those agreements when we left the European Union, and now we have this problem. I hope when he's on your program you'll ask him to apologise."

Sir Ed has argued that leaving the EU meant losing access to the Dublin agreement - an EU system that meant asylum seekers could be sent back to the first country they reached. He said that this helped create a "magnet of people" - because Britain lost the ability to return people to Europe.

The Lib Dem leader stated: "What Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson did is have a magnet of people, more and more people coming to the UK, because we can't return them. So again I ask you please, that Nigel Farage is exposed for his failures and contributions to the small boats crisis."

On Sunday a fringe event at the conference heard small boats crossing the Channel should be renamed "Brexit boats". A panel was questioned on whether the soundbite would point the finger of blame at Brexit's architects.

A delegate from the Mole Valley Liberal Democrats group, said: "Ed Davey recently said if we were still in the EU, we could simply send the people who arrive on boats, on the boats back.

"Can we use the term Brexit boat to refer to these boats? We need a soundbite, and Brexit boats, we should really do this."

Lib Dem peer Lord Mike German responded: "I love the Brexit boats which of course is about the Dublin agreement, which of course we were extinguished from when we left the European Union."

Critics of Sir Ed's view have hit back saying the Dublin agreement was flawed and claim it would not have solved the current problems. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused the Lib Dem chief of "rewriting history". Around 7% of outgoing requests under the agreement were accepted, according to official figures.

From 2015 to 2018, Home Office data shows, the UK made 18,953 outgoing requests to transfer people to other member states, from which 1,395 people were transferred abroad.

In the same period 7,365 incoming requests were made to transfer people into the UK, of which 2,365 were granted.

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