Home secretary Suella Braverman 'making very good progress' on reducing migrant numbers at Manston, says prime minister

Speaking to broadcasters in Egypt ahead of the COP27 summit, Rishi Sunak said that the UK will work with other European nations to ‘grip this challenge’.

The prime minister has held meetings with French president Emmanuel Macron and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni on the margins of the climate conference.

ALSO READ: Portsmouth City Council releases 'warm places' list before winter kicks in

He said: ‘The home secretary is actually at the moment making sure that we reduce the numbers at Manston, and we’re making very good progress on that. But in the long-term, to make sure that we don’t have a situation that we saw at Manston happening again, we need to reduce the number of people coming here illegally.

‘Now that’s going to require the home secretary and others to work constructively with partners around Europe to stop people coming in the first place.

‘And there’s a range of things we need to do to make that a reality. That’s what the home secretary is focused on and that’s what I’m focused on as well.’

The UK and French governments are ‘certainly discussing ongoing further co-operation’ on the matter, Downing Street said.

According to the prime minister’s official spokesperson, the French role in tackling small boats crossing the English Channel was ‘vitally important’.

They said: ‘They have stopped 29,000 illegal crossings since the start of the year, that’s double what it was the year before that, and we have a joint intelligence cell which has made more than 500 arrests and dismantled 55 organised crime groups since 2020.’