‘All Mouth and No Trousers’: UK PM ‘fed Up’ With Priti Patel For Failing To Resolve Migrant Crisis Across Channel

As per Daily Mail, the home secretary was privately rebuked by PM Boris Johnson for failing to ‘get a grip’ on the influx of migrant boats. Questions over Patel’s ability to deal with the situation arose after 27 people died in the English Channel after a flimsy boast sank in the freezing waters on Wednesday.

Talking to Sunday Times on conditions of anonymity, a cabinet minister complained that Patel had “overpromised and underdelivered” for the past two years.

“Its been all mouth and no trousers and everyone, including the PM, is getting fed up with her.” Reiterating the dissatisfaction over Patel’s actions, another minister accused her of hiding from the media after the Wednesday tragedy.

As per reports, Patel was supposed to meet French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the migrant influx. However, the meeting was axed after PM Johnson posted an open letter on Twitter urging his French counterpart to “take back” the migrants attempting to sail through Channel. In the letter, which Macron dubbed to be a protocol breach, PM Johnson outlined five steps to “move further and faster” towards resolving the crisis.

Patel’s allies hit back at Whitehall

While Whitehall ministers have left no stones unturned to lambast Patel, allies of the home secretary hit back blaming the French and ministerial colleagues for being unwilling to contribute to resolving the migrant matter. According to a Home Office source, as told to the Daily Mail, “This letter debacle shows publicly what Priti has been battling against in private for the last two years. We have made all the offers the Prime Minister made to the French in his letter before.” Pointing out at the fiasco created over the open letter to France, Patel’s ally added even a “pot of unlimited gold and a magic wand” if offered to them will do not good.

However, Patel is understood to be particularly infuriated with Justice Secretary Dominic Raab over the lack of progress.

Blame game between UK and France

Meanwhile, the recent tragedy has escalated frustrations between the British and the French governments with both having pledged that they “would do everything possible” to stop endangering lives. As per the Associated Press, the UK expressed anger after France rejected their offer to bolster enforcement along the channel coast by sending British enforcement officers to conduct joint patrols with France Police.

While the countries have worked together to tackle migrant flow from the Middle East and Africa, the relationship between the UK and Paris has remained fraught since Brexit. “When it left the bloc, Britain also exited a system that provided for intra-European cooperation on asylum and other migration issues,” Nando Sigona, professor of international migration and forced displacement at the University of Birmingham, told AP.

At least 25,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel to enter the United Kingdom so far this year, with more than 1,000 in a single day in November. As per UK government data, cited by BBC, asylum applications reached the highest level since 2004. Claims went up by 18% in 2020 even during pandemic travel restrictions were imposed.

(With inputs from AP