At the Liberal Democrat annual conference, there was a suggestion to rename small boats crossing the Channel as “Brexit boats.” This proposal came after party leader Sir Ed Davey criticized Nigel Farage for not apologizing to voters for losing the ability to return migrants to Europe. The idea of using the term “Brexit boats” was raised during a discussion about assigning blame to those responsible for Brexit.
A delegate from the Mole Valley Liberal Democrats group highlighted Ed Davey’s previous statement that if the UK were still part of the EU, migrants arriving by boat could have been returned on the same boats. The delegate proposed using the term “Brexit boats” as a soundbite to refer to these vessels, emphasizing the need for a clear message.
In response, Lord Mike German expressed support for the term “Brexit boats,” linking it to the Dublin agreement, which the UK lost access to upon exiting the European Union. Sir Ed Davey has argued that leaving the EU resulted in losing the benefits of the Dublin agreement, which allowed asylum seekers to be sent back to the first European country they reached.
Critics of this perspective have contested the effectiveness of the Dublin agreement, with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accusing the Liberal Democrats of distorting history. Data from the Home Office shows that from 2015 to 2018, the UK made nearly 19,000 requests to transfer people to other EU member states, with only a fraction of those requests being granted.
These figures also reveal that during the same period, there were over 7,000 requests to transfer individuals into the UK, with a smaller portion of those requests being approved. The debate continues regarding the implications of Brexit on migration policies and the handling of asylum seekers in light of the changes resulting from the UK’s departure from the EU.
