James Cleverly was skewered by Yvette Cooper on Tuesday over his migration claims.
The Tory home secretary was on LBC alongside his Labour shadow when he claimed migrants are “queuing up in Calais” waiting for a Labour government to drop the Rwanda asylum plan.
Cooper replied that “people are not waiting, they are arriving” under the Conservatives government.
Small boat crossings reached a record high in the first six months of this year, with 12,901 arrivals before the end of June.
The stats mean 50,000 migrants have arrived via small boats since Rishi Sunak got into No.10 in 2022.
Cleverly hit back by suggesting Labour would join a migrant quota scheme with the EU, which his counterpart denied.
Cooper did note the UK was part of a deal on migrant returns, known as the Dublin Agreement, when it was part of the EU.
But suggesting that a new returns scheme would not work, Cleverly continued: “The challenge in Europe, as I’ve said, is more stark than the challenge in the UK.
“It’s difficult for all of us but in continental Europe they have a larger problem.
“So the arrangement that you’re talking about will inevitably mean the UK becomes the net recipient of illegal migrants.
“We estimate around 100,000 additional people ...”
“Oh this is just invented!” Cooper said. “This is just fantasy!
“This is just total garbage, no, seriously, he shouldn’t be allowed to just basically make stuff up or just tell lies. That is just not on.”
She added: “Where’s this 100,000 [come from], it’s just garbage.”
Cleverly stuttered in response, until Cooper said: “It’s invented, isn’t it, James?”
Refusing to look at her, he said: “It’s a simple fact of the matter that the numbers in Europe are higher than in the UK per capita, and therefore if we do some kind of sharing agreement – like the Dublin agreement – we will inevitably be a net recipient.
“And when Yvette says we’re going to do greater cooperation, she needs to explain why would countries who have a larger problem that us be willing to receive migrants from us.”
Labour’s shadow home secretary just said Labour would not join the EU quota scheme because it wouldn’t be “right for the UK” – and so Cleverly claimed Labour-led government “won’t get a deal”.
While the Tories have insisted they will finally get the Rwanda deportation flights off the ground if they are re-elected next month, Labour have promised to scrap the scheme altogether.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has said this will free up £75m within a year, enabling the government to hire hundreds of investigators and “intelligence agents” to “smash” the people-smuggling gangs.