LBC's Nick Ferrari loses it in migrant row: 'Don't give me a headache'

Broadcaster Nick Ferrari called for migrant rights activist Zoe Gardner to elaborate on why the new UK-France migration deal may not be a "breakthrough" after all on LBC today. She began: "Unfortunately, the problem with a one-in-one-out deal is that it stops working as soon as it works..."

Ferrari interjected: "What do you mean by that? Don't give me a headache at 13 minutes after 7am. What do you mean Zoe?" She responded: "If your safe route to the UK depends on another person risking their life in the Channel, and the intention with that is that because some people are returned from risking their lives in the Channel, that that becomes unattractive, and people instead try to go on the safe route.

"Well, then the safe route dries up pretty quickly - because there is no one crossing the Channel anymore - in theory at least.

"I mean, I don't think that will actually happen with this deal, but the theory just doesn't hold together because you immediately make the safe route non-viable when you've successfully stopped people crossing the Channel.

"And so what will they do? Well, I am afraid they might go back to irregular ways of trying to reach the UK."

Their debate comes after Sir Keir Starmer's "one in, one out" plan to end the small boat crisis was branded a failure by the officials who carried it out.

Today, the body representing immigration staff said the deal struck by Sir Keir and French President Emmanuel Macron was only "scratching a very bare minimum of the surface".

Immigration Services Union spokesperson Lucy Moreton added: "We need to be able to go a lot further if it's going to do anything other than simply put more money into criminal gangs."

Under the deal agreed between the UK and France, arrivals will be returned to France, and an equal number of migrants seeking asylum will be able to come to the UK from France through a new legal route.

However, the plan has raised concerns in Cyprus, Malta, Spain, Italy and Greece, which are often the first EU countries where migrants from the Middle East and Africa arrive before making the journey to the UK.

They fear it will ultimately mean that would-be asylum seekers will be returned to their countries.