British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni in Rome to discuss tackling illegal immigration, a day after another Channel migrant shipwreck claimed eight lives. Starmer, whose centre-left Labour Party was elected with a crushing parliamentary majority in July, has vowed to fight illegal immigration, a hot-button topic in British politics for years. Far-right riots shook cities and towns across England and Northern Ireland shortly after Starmer’s election, the UK’s worst unrest since 2011, with mosques and migrant accommodation centres often targeted. The perilous cross-Channel journeys migrants attempt from northern France have posed a fiendishly difficult problem to solve for successive British prime ministers. Starmer’s trip to Italy has already spurred criticism, even within his own party. Labour MP Kim Johnson told The Guardian newspaper it was "disturbing that Starmer is seeking to learn lessons from a neo-fascist government, particularly after the anti-refugee riots and far-right racist terrorism that swept Britain this summer". As Starmer and Meloni seek to significantly curb migrant boats reaching UK and Italy, FRANCE 24’s Gavin Lee is joined by award-winning Author, Journalist Sally Hayden and Andrew Geddes, Professor, Political Scientist, Chair in Migration Studies and Director of the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) at the European University Institute (EUI).
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