Davey Urges UK to Join EU Migration Pact on Small Boats
The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, called for the UK to join the European Union’s Migration and Asylum Pact, arguing that being outside it leaves Britain “vulnerable to traffickers” and unable to return small-boat arrivals. Membership would restore access to the Schengen Information System and the Eurodac fingerprint database. He blamed Brexit and Nigel Farage for ending the returns arrangements that once allowed removals to EU states.
The intervention stakes out clear Liberal Democrat territory, unashamedly pro-European, on an issue the government would rather handle quietly and Reform exploits loudly. Rejoining the pact would indeed restore practical tools lost after Brexit, chiefly shared biometric data and a mechanism to return asylum seekers to the first safe country they entered. But it would also mean accepting EU rules and a share of the bloc’s own asylum burden, a hard sell to voters told for years that leaving meant taking back control. With small-boat crossings still high, the politics of migration remain treacherous for every party. Watch whether Labour engages with the idea or steers clear of anything that reopens the Brexit argument.