According to Priti Patel, the answer to the surge in migrants and refugees coming across the channel to the UK is to send them back while on the open seas, but only of it safe to do so.
I doubt that France will be pleased with that, or the threat to take away funding that had been agreed for extra patrols.
Ignoring the issue of if it is right to send boats back to France if intercepted, the fact is that Priti Patel has thrown others under the bus when the heat is on, notably Cressida Dick, who obeyed her request when it came to the Sarah Everard vigil. If any fatalities happen, I suspect that given her previous form, she will be quick to blame those obeying her instructions due to her caveat of “if safe to do so” and those who work in the coastguard had better recall her bullying nature as there is no doubt that they will be abandoned by her.
