PM shows 'great interest' in Italy's offshore migrant plan

Sir Keir Starmer has shown “great interest” in Italy’s controversial scheme to send migrants to be processed offshore, the country’s leader Giorgia Meloni has said.

- KATE DEVLIN, ARCHIE MITCHELL

A defiant Italian premier also defended her deal with Albania, brushing aside humanitarian concerns as “completely groundless”.

Sir Keir has not ruled out a similar scheme in the UK and said he would employ “British pragmatism” when it comes to solving the small boats crisis, after a summit with Ms Meloni in Rome. The two met after another tragic weekend in which eight people died attempting to cross the English Channel.

Before the prime minister’s trip, No 10 praised Ms Meloni and said the pair would discuss her country’s success in slashing boat crossings by 60 per cent over the past year. As well as the yet-tobegin Albania scheme, the Italian PM has struck financial deals with countries including Tunisia and Libya in a bid to prevent small boats setting off from north Africa.

In the wake of the summit, the UK is expected to give some £4m to an initiative called the Rome Process, an Italian government scheme to tackle the root causes of irregular migration. After their meeting, Ms Meloni told a press conference: “The UK government has shown great interest in this [Albania] agreement.”

Earlier the home secretary Yvette Cooper defended the deal describing it as “very, very different” from Rishi Sunak’s widely condemned Rwanda plan. Under the Conservatives’ scheme, which Labour scrapped immediately after taking power, asylum seekers would have been sent on a one-way ticket to the African nation, whether or not their asylum application was successful.

Under the Meloni plan, Albania will accept asylum seekers on Italy’s behalf while their claims are processed. Those whose claims are successful, expected to be a small minority, will be brought to Italy, while failed asylum seekers from safe countries will be returned to their home country.