MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Proof it's not only 'Little Englanders' who want to ... trends now
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The Government’s policy of sending illegal migrants to Rwanda has now received a deeply important endorsement. It is one that really ought to change a lot of minds.
The European People’s Party, the main centre-right formation in the EU, has adopted a scheme so similar that it is hard to tell apart from Rishi Sunak’s plan to stop the boats.
In its platform for the approaching European elections, scheduled for early June, the EPP has stated that it seeks ‘a fundamental change in European asylum law’. It argues that the EU and its member states ‘must have the right to decide’ to whom and where asylum is granted.
It proposes deals with safe third countries, where those applying for asylum can be put through the process.
Mr Sunak is understandably pleased, and writes in The Mail on Sunday today: ‘I said when I first became Prime Minister that others would recognise a meaningful deterrent is the only way to stop the boats – and now even top parties in the EU are following our lead.’
MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: The European People's Party has adopted a scheme so similar to Rishi Sunak's plan to stop the boats it's impossible to tell them apart
There are many ways in which this is welcome. First, it is a recognition by leading, responsible politicians in major, civilised European states that there is a problem of mass migration on a scale not previously seen.
This affects almost all the continent’s countries. It is also an acknowledgement that existing laws and measures simply do not deal
