Sir Keir Starmer’s small boats plan bombs in just hours as EU brand it ‘delusional’

SIR Keir Starmer’s new small boats plan bombed within hours yesterday as Eurocrats branded it “delusional”.

His aim of landing a migrant returns deal with the EU was swiftly dismissed in Brussels.

The Labour leader believes striking an agreement to send illegal arrivals back to EU nations is the key to ending the Channel crisis.

He unveiled his blueprint this week in an effort to silence critics who say he has no plan to curb deadly crossings.

But it appeared to unravel yesterday as EU sources told The Times: “There is absolutely no question of helping the UK until we have put our own house in order.

“Starmer is deluded if he thinks European governments, who are under much more pressure on asylum and migration than Britain, are going to come to his rescue.”

The bloc has been trying to broker an EU-wide returns agreement for years to no avail.

Policing Minister Chris Philp said yesterday: “It would appear that Keir Starmer’s plans have sort of collapsed with the first contact with reality.”

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper insisted this was “total garbage”.

She said: “What they (Tories) have been trying to say is that we would somehow be part of the European member states’ asylum dispersal quota scheme.

“We clearly won’t be part of that quota scheme.

“We are not a member state, we will not be a member state, we will not be part of that scheme.”

On Thursday, another 115 migrants crossed the Channel crammed into two boats.