UK politics live: Yvette Cooper won’t set small boats target as Starmer to meet Italy PM Meloni over Albania migrant deal

Italy’s planned third-country processing deal with Albania is “very, very different” from the previous UK government’s Rwanda scheme, Yvette Cooper has said.

The Home Secretary told Good Morning Britain: “It’s very, very different. So the arrangement that they have in place – and look, it’s not working yet, so we don’t know how it will play out – but it is a very, very different approach.

“First of all, this is Italian processing taking place in Albania. It has UNHCR oversight, so it is being monitored to make sure that it meets international standards.

“It’s being done in cooperation between those two countries, and what they’re actually doing is looking at those people who arrive in Italy, who have come from predominantly safe countries, and they’re using it as a way to try and fast-track decisions and returns.

“Now we think there is another way we can fast-track decisions and returns for people who arrive from predominantly safer countries.

“We should be fast-tracking those cases. We should be making sure you don’t have people spending years in the asylum system, which ends up being hugely costly, hugely chaotic. That’s the system we’ve inherited.”

The Home Secretary has said the Government has a “moral imperative” to reduce small boat crossings.

Responding to criticism of Italy’s migration policy, Yvette Cooper told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve always had a history of working with governments that have different political parties that are not aligned.

“That is a sensible thing for any government to do. We have to work with democratically elected governments, particularly those who are our nearest neighbours, and particularly those where we have shared challenges that we have to face.”

On potential violations of migrants’ human rights in Italy, Ms Cooper said: “I don’t think it’s immoral to go after the criminal gangs. Quite the opposite. I think it’s actually a moral imperative to make sure that we are pursuing the criminal gangs who are putting lives at risk.”

The Government is looking to Italian-style migration policies in a number of areas, including a deal with Albania and a “major returns” scheme, the Home Secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper said there are four different policies the Italians have which interest the UK government.

“The first is the work that they are doing around organised immigration crime,” she told BBC Breakfast.

“That’s the work that we are substantially gearing up, where we will be doing a huge technology upgrade as well, and where we want to work with Italy, with Germany, with other European countries, with France as well.

“The second thing they’re doing is they’re working with other countries upstream to prevent people leaving North Africa in the first place…working with Tunisia, we think we should be part of those international co-operations as well.

“The third thing they’re doing is major returns. So they’re speeding up returns for those who don’t have a right to be there. We’ve been doing that through the summer as well, so we’ve had a substantial increase in returns for people who don’t have a right to be in the UK, because the rules need to be respected and enforced.

“The fourth thing they’re doing is the Albania programme, but that hasn’t started yet, so we’ll need to see what that does. It’s very different from the Rwanda partnership that the UK government had, and we’ll have to see how that plays out.”

Sir Keir Starmer is facing fresh criticism over his Government’s decision to cull winter fuel payments, with millions of pensioners set to lose out from Monday.

Tory leadership hopeful James Cleverly said it was an “unbelievably foolish choice” while Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokeswoman Wendy Chamberlain said means-testing the payment worth up to £300 was a “historic mistake”.

Ms Chamberlain said: “This new Government is set to make a historic mistake today as millions of pensioners see their winter fuel payments cut.

“Scrapping winter fuel payments for most pensioners including many in poverty is completely wrong. It’s not too late for ministers to change course.

“Liberal Democrats will fight tooth and nail to reverse this cut. We’ll be using our record number of MPs in Parliament to hold the Government to account on this issue and fight for a fair deal for pensioners.”

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