Starmer announces £84 million for Africa and Middle East to stop migrants coming to UK

ITV's Political Editor Robert Peston reports from the summit in Oxfordshire.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced £84 million to invest in Africa and the Middle East to try and deter migrants from coming to the UK.

"To stop illegal migration, we must also tackle it at source", the PM said.

Sir Keir said the projects which will receive funding include "humanitarian and health support, skills training, held with job opportunities, and access to education".

At the major summit held in Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the PM has been holding meetings with European leaders, hoping to reset relations with the EU and push for action on securing the continent's borders.

More than 380,000 people are believed to have entered the EU through irregular routes in 2023 – an increase of 17% on the previous year.

Around 41% of those arrivals are believed to have come in small boats across the Central Mediterranean, 26% on land through the Balkans, and 16% coming across the Eastern Mediterranean.

At the opening of the summit, Starmer told the group of European leaders: "We want to re-discover our common interest, and renew the bonds of trust and friendship that brighten the fabric of European life."

Sat next to Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy, Starmer expressed support for the fight against Russia, adding: "The task is urgent because our security is on the line - every day Ukraine fights to protect not just the Ukrainian people, but the European people."

The government said it is redeploying staff from the now-scrapped Rwanda scheme to focus on a "rapid returns unit" to send people with no right to be in the UK back to their home country.

Starmer is hosting the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Oxfordshire and it is being co-chaired by Italy’s right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni.

The PM called for continent-wide action to tackle the international "people-smuggling webs".

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: "We've not seen this sort of gathering here in the UK in a generation, it's a huge opportunity to reset our relations with the European family and to talk and issues we have in common."

Asked how close he wanted to get to the EU after the UK voted for Brexit in 2016, Lammy said "at the moment this is a gathering of the European family, not the European Union... we have said we wan't to look again at that paper thin trade deal that Boris Johnson struck."

The Labour government is seeking a security pact with the EU and the prime minister is also determined to cement European nations' support for Ukraine in its war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Starmer said: "We cannot let the challenges of the recent past define our relationships of the future.

"That is why European security will be at the forefront of this Government’s foreign and defence priorities, and why I am focused on seizing this moment to renew our relationship with Europe."

He added: "We will only be able to secure our borders, drive economic growth and defend our democracies if we work together."

Under the government's plans to respond to the small boats crisis, asylum decisions will be accelerated and, under a new fast-tracked system in the returns and enforcement unit, officials will prioritise those with no right to be in the UK and who have the greatest chance of being returned.

A new Border Security Command will use counter-terror powers to fight organised immigration crime, working "across Europe and beyond", Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.

"Dangerous small boat crossings are undermining our border security and putting lives at risk," she said.

Starmer will hold a private dinner on Thursday evening with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The PM's spokesperson denied reports that Starmer would be using the meeting to discuss a potential returns agreement to send back some asylum seekers who cross the channel in return for accepting some some people from Europe.

Marcon was asked by ITV News Political Correspondent Harry Horton how urgent a new deal on illegal migration is, and replied - "our co-operation to prevent this migration before the arrivals in France is a more sufficient one."

On Thursday morning, as leaders began to travel to the summit, ITV News filmed a boat of migrants in the channel as their vessel started to deflate and had to be rescued.

Hungarian PM and Putin ally Viktor Orban gave blunt answers on migration and Trump when he arrived at the summit.

"Don't let them in", he said on migration, and praised Trump as "the man of the peace."

The gathering at Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill, is a more informal affair than many international summits.

The leaders attended a reception hosted by the King in the palace’s Long Library, which has walls lined with more than 10,000 books.

Starmer has held a series of face-to-face talks with key figures including Polish counterpart Donald Tusk – who was president of the European Council at the height of the Brexit drama – as he attempts to strengthen ties with the continent.

The EPC was the brainchild of France’s Emmanuel Macron and involves 20 non-EU nations including the UK as well as the 27-strong EU bloc.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister for European relations at the heart of the government’s reset plan, is also at the gathering.

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