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Patricia Watkins
2 min read
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) is expected to take command of the Border Force operation by the end of the month under a decision signed by Boris Johnson.
Defense Minister James Heappey said the military involvement is part of a broader government plan, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
The current details were reportedly announced as part of a Government bid to offer ‘red meat’ to Tory MPs in a bid to distract from the party’s allegations in Downing Street.
But the former Conservative minister Sir Edward Leigh warned: ‘In the absence of ministers with the political will to use pushback, what’s the point of appointing a Royal Naval admiral to help Border Force be a more efficient taxi service so migrants know that now’ we have the Royal Navy will pick us up and we will be taken safely to the UK, and we will be placed in a hotel and we will never be sent home’? It’s just a shame.”
“Will the Minister now coordinate with his colleagues to do what we have been suggesting for months now and that we get rid of the pull factors, which is that we reform any necessary pieces of legislation, including the human rights, and the people who make this illegal crossing are arrested, imprisoned, and then deported?
Heappey replied: “His exhortations and those of his colleagues have been heard.”
Conservative MP Philip Hollobone added: ‘It’s not Operation Red Meat, it’s Operation Dog’s Dinner. This will entice the people smugglers, they will see the Royal Navy ship on the horizon and they will say “steer your dinghy in this direction, you only have to go half way” and the Royal Navy will pick them up . The only way for this to work is for the Royal Navy to intercept asylum seekers and send them back to France. Without the second bit, it just won’t work.
Heappey replied, “The last piece would be impossible without French authorization and French authorization has not been given. But I do not accept his description of what we are talking about today. The MoD’s mission is to ensure that no one arrives in the UK on their own terms.
Tobias Ellwood, Conservative Chairman of the Defense Committee, warned: “There is a real danger of mission drift here, with new naval assets being sucked into this challenge.
