A former Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has torn into the Liberal Democrats' demand Britain join the European Union's migration pact.
Speaking to GB News, John Vine warned the agreement would effectively hand control of the UK’s borders to Brussels, reversing powers won through Brexit.
Earlier today, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called on the UK to join the EU's migration and asylum pact, arguing it would help tackle small boat crossings by breaking the business model of people smugglers.
Blaming Brexit for the crisis, he said: “Reform and the Conservatives should hang their heads in shame for having caused this problem and now trying to exploit it.”
He argued working with Brussels would “end small boat crossings because it would break the business model of the people smugglers, the human traffickers.
“Until we break that model, I'm afraid they'll continue.”
In joining the EU pact, Britain would be forced to accept a baseline of 30,000 migrants every year.
Countries must also pay a €20,000 (£17,000) fine for every rejected migrant to a larger fund. Norway and Switzerland pay €600million (£515million) to Brussels as part of the scheme.
As such, Mr Vine rejected the proposals on sovereignty and their practical ability to solve the small boats crisis.
“Having taken back power over our own borders, at least in theory, we need to try and keep it rather than hand it over to someone else again," he said.
“At the end of the day, it's up to each individual nation state to secure its borders, and we need to do that to the best of our ability,” the former border inspector added.
He also challenged the claim the pact would end small boat crossings, warning organised crime would continue to operate as long as demand remained.
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“Once that quota number is achieved, what happens to the people who still want to come to the UK, who are outside that annual figure?”
“Far from it breaking the business model of organised crime, the organised crime won't go away as long as the demand is there,” Mr Vine said.
He argued the key to tackling the Channel crisis was finding a way to deter people from making the journey in the first place.
“The key, as I've said repeatedly before, is to try and have a way of deterring people from actually coming here and staying here in the first place,” he said.
“Unless somebody grasps that nettle and somebody comes up with a bright idea as to how to do that politically, then we'll keep talking about the consequences of not having a policy in place.”
Earlier today, Lib Dem MP Max Wilkinson defended his party’s plan to work with the EU while speaking with GB News.
“We're pointing out that since Brexit, it has become more disorderly, and Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party and Reform said that we would have more control over asylum if we left the EU and in fact, we've had the opposite,” he said.
However, host Alex Armstrong challenged him by asking how joining this new pact would be "any better" than previous pacts agreed with member states.
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