MPs have been told by Ms Braverman’s allies that the funding could be used as leverage to establish joint Border Force and Gendarmerie patrols on beaches in northern France used by smugglers to launch small boats.
The French have resisted for fear of encroaching on sovereignty, but one MP said: “Suella has stated that she wants to have joint patrols.
“A lot of the French opposition was Emmanuel Macron standing around the presidential election. We do joint security, we do joint intelligence and we need joint patrols on their side.”
Speaking to an atrium packed with Home Office staff on Wednesday, Ms Braverman said tackling the migrant crisis in the Channel would be one of her “clear priorities”, as she told them she would ” developed some obsessions”.
“This is not just a manifesto promise, people are dying,” she said, as she promised to take a “stronger line” against traffickers. It was one of three priorities alongside making roads safer through a crime-based approach with 20,000 extra officers and counter-terrorism.
Both Ms Braverman and Liz Truss are committed to Rwanda’s asylum policy, currently blocked by a high court challenge over its legality, with sources saying the Home Secretary’s legal expertise as a former attorney-general and attention to detail offered a better chance of overcoming obstacles.
“She is determined to make Rwandan politics work. It should be that offshore processing of asylum claims is the norm,” said one ally.
Ben & Jerry’s on Wednesday faced backlash for their tweets with the Common Cause campaign calling on them to “stop selling ice cream.”
It’s not the first time the company has landed in hot water for a political stance.
Kemi Badenoch has previously called out the “Ben & Jerry tendencies” of companies that focus on social justice rather than profits, and is currently in legal battles with parent company Unilever over its decision to ban ice cream sales in the occupied Palestinian territories .
In August 2020, the company tweeted at Priti Patel, the then home secretary, saying: “People wouldn’t take dangerous journeys if they had any other choice. The UK has not resettled any refugees since March, but wars and violence continue. What we need are safer and legal roads.”
‘Statistically Inaccurate Virtue Signaling’
James Cleverly, the new foreign secretary, wrote at the time: “Can I have a big scoop of statistically incorrect virtue signaling with my wildly overpriced ice cream please.”
Under the new Home Secretary, MPs expect a crackdown on the use of the Modern Slavery Act by migrants to avoid deportation by raising the evidence threshold for claims, a one-stop-shop approach preventing repeated submissions of new evidence and curbing claims for trafficking that took place outside the UK.
Greater use of the detention of migrants in safe havens is also being considered to act as a further deterrent to the record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel. Nearly 28,000 have reached the UK so far this year, double the rate in 2021.
The problem is where the Home Office can set up safe camps as an alternative to hotels, where thousands are currently being held, after the Ministry of Defense (MoD) this summer withdrew its bid for the RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire.
The Home Office is reviewing accommodation and benefits packages for asylum seekers to counter what one MP described as the impression that the UK was a “land of milk and honey”. “It’s very different to come to a place where you’re going to be in safe harbor and then it’s going to be processed offshore,” they said.
Asked by Home Office staff on Wednesday what she does to relax, she said that apart from spending time with her family, it’s “rubbish TV” and binges on Married at First Sight, Love Island and First Dates.
