The outgoing chief of the British Border Force reportedly said that “bloody borders” are a “pain in the bloody ass” as the agency he leads...
The outgoing chief of the British Border Force reportedly said that “bloody borders” are a “pain in the bloody ass” as the agency he leads continues to bring hordes of illegal boat migrants to Britain’s shores.
Paul Lincoln, who has served as the director-general of the Border Force since 2017, marked his departure with a speech maligning the very concept of borders themselves as he is set to step down from his £135,000-per-year position.
Excerpts of the speech, which were obtained by the Mail on Sunday, had Lincoln quoting Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, saying: “People are talking about immigration, emigration, and the rest of the bloody thing. It’s all bloody crap.”
Mr Lincoln concluded his remarks by proclaiming: “We’re all human beings, we’re all mammals, we’re all rocks, plants, rivers. Bloody borders are just such a pain in the bloody ass.”
The leaked speech comes as the migrant crisis in the English Channel continues to hit record levels, with a new daily high of 1,185 landing on British beaches on Thursday. It is estimated that over 23,500 illegals have successfully reached the UK since the start of the year, approaching three times last year’s record total of 8,410.
Rather than protecting the nation’s borders, the Border Force has been accused of acting as a “taxi service” for illegal migrants, with Border Force boats regularly picking up migrants in the middle of the Channel and ferrying them to the Port of Dover. The Border Force has also reportedly travelled into French territorial waters to pick up migrants and bring them back to Britain.
Priti Patel’s Home Office has called for the Border Force to begin turning migrant boats back to France, a safe and prosperous EU member-state from which migrants have no cause to flee. However, last week a Border Force official told the media that there is no appetite within the agency of enacting the government’s wishes, saying: “There is fairly universal agreement that this is not likely to ever happen.”
There is growing concern within the government that the migrant crisis will only escalate in light of the masses of Middle Eastern migrants gathering on the Poland-Belarus border, with many potentially heading to the United Kingdom should they breach the EU frontier.
On Sunday, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “We are facing a global migration crisis, choreographed by organised crime groups. This is a pressing and urgent issue for the whole of Europe, requiring close working with our near neighbours in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
“Partnership with France is central to our response to unacceptable and deadly illegal crossings in the Channel. It is a shared problem and it needs shared solutions and I have been in close contact with Monsieur Darmanin this weekend,” she said, heedless of the fact that counting on the French to stop the crisis instead of taking robust unilateral action has failed for years.
There is growing concerns about the potential political fallout from the crisis, particularly in so-called Red Wall seats in which Tory MPs were elected in traditional Labour Party strongholds in 2019.
Amid allegations of corruption within the Conservative Party, recent polls have seen Keir Starmer’s Labour actually take a lead over Boris Johnson’s Tories in the polls, representing the first lead for the left-wing party since January.
Tory MP Alexander Stafford, who represents a Red Wall seat in Rother Valley in the North of England, criticised the government for focusing on issues like climate change rather than on the migrant crisis, which in his estimation is far more of a pressing issue for voters.
“Apart from Covid, dealing with the migrant crisis is the No 1 priority for my constituents. The Government must put relentless focus on sorting out the mess going on in the Channel,” the Conservative MP told the MoS.
Another Red Wall MP told the paper: “We’re hosting this huge world climate conference but we can’t stop people crossing 25 miles of water in a rubber dinghy.”
No comments