Starmer moots deal with Brussels to take MORE asylum seekers

Keir Starmer wants to make England a 'dumping ground for the EU's unwanted migrants by inviting more of them over the Channel. 

The Labour leader rolled the dice on the election battlefield as he visited The Hague - and the HQ of Europol, which the UK left due to Brexit.

In a round of interviews, he insisted that the plan would help stop the Channel boats, saying he wanted to treat people smugglers like terrorists.

The plan is to take 100,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy, and Keir has suggested that Britain could 'burden share' with the bloc.

However, Germany has backed out of an EU resettlement scheme.

The trip comes ahead of a visit to Paris next week, where Keir will hold talks with Emmanuel Macron - defying normal diplomatic protocol. He is expected to see the French president shortly before King Charles makes his long-awaited first state visit.

Keir is also expected to meet Justin Trudeau on a trip to Canada for a centre-left political summit next week.

Labour is promising to 'smash' the criminal gangs responsible for smuggling thousands of migrants across the Channel.

The party wants a deal with the EU that could allow the UK to return some migrants who are deemed to have no claim here.

But in return, Keir is willing to open negotiations about joining an EU 'burden sharing' system designed to relocate hundreds of thousands of migrants who land in Greece, Italy and other countries.

The controversial move could see the UK obliged to find homes for thousands of migrants who cross the Mediterranean in search of a new life in Europe.

Keir declined to be drawn on how many people could be involved, however if the system was calculated on a population basis, the UK could have been asked to take more than 100,000 of the one million migrants who landed in the EU last year.

The controversial 'burden sharing' scheme was set up to relieve pressure on Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta, where most migrants heading for the EU first arrive.

But it has met fierce resistance from some countries, particularly in eastern Europe. Several EU countries, including Poland, Hungary, Austria, Denmark, Latvia and Slovakia, have resisted efforts by Brussels to make them take more migrants arriving elsewhere in the EU.