the times | Monday January 3 2022 7
News
Officials are working on plans for a deal
to tackle the Channel migrant crisis
later in the year as the government has
“all but given up” hope of reaching an
agreement with France before elec-
tions in April, The Times has been told.
Senior Home Office staff said they
were developing proposals that could
be tabled “once the heat of the election
is over” in the hope that whoever wins
will return with their own “realistic”
plans for tackling the record crossings.
Almost 30,000 migrants crossed the
Channel in small boats last year, more
than tripling 2020’s record-breaking
figure of 8,420.
After the death of 27 migrants in No-
vember, a team of Home Office officials
were dispatched to Paris to discuss
emergency plans to prevent further tra-
gedies. However, within 48 hours Presi-
dent Macron and Boris Johnson had
fallen out as a blame game erupted.
A Home Office official who travelled
Officials hope for Channel
deal after French election
to Paris for the talks said: “Macron’s of-
ficials just sat there saying ‘non, non,
non,’ to all our proposals. They didn’t
have to say it but they were basically
saying there’s no chance of a break-
through before the election.”
The British official said they were
hopeful that Macron would return to
the table, but added: “With it being so
close to the election, it’s politically diffi-
cult for him to be offering any kind of
significant concessions to the British.”
The Times also understands that the
French Republicans, who currently
pose the main challenge to Macron’s re-
election, are drawing up their own radi-
cal plans for fixing the Channel crisis.
Some Conservative MPs are pinning
their hopes on Valérie Pécresse, the Re-
publicans’ nominee, beating Macron.
She has commissioned Pierre-Henri
Dumont, a Calais MP, to draw up the
party’s immigration policies.
One option understood to be under
consideration is offering a deal for
France to take back some Channel mi-grants who had successfully made it to
the Kent coast if the UK agrees to con-
sider some claims from asylum seekers
in France who met certain criteria.
Crucially, the deal would involve
strengthening French law enforcement
by requiring the authorities to detain all
migrants they catch on beaches trying
to cross the Channel in small boats.
They would be detained at reception
centres such as Dijon, a city hundreds
of miles from Calais. Britain would have
to agree to consider asylum applica-
tions from migrants who have a “valid”
reason to claim asylum in the UK, such
as having family there.
Tim Loughton, a senior Conservative
MP who sits on the home affairs com-
mittee, said the plans could help deliver
a breakthrough. He said: “If we agreed
to it, all of this is contingent on the
French being serious about enforce-
ment of existing measures to detain
people. But if the Republicans come up
with a hard viable solution, that might
have electoral advantage to them.”RNLI sets fundraising record
after criticism of migrant role
Cameron ChartersMatt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
The Royal National Lifeboat Institu-
tion (RNLI) is on track to record its
highest ever annual fundraising total.
The 200-year-old charity said that
support surged last year with online
donations rising by 50 per cent. Its data-
base of supporters has also grown to
300,000 people.
Donations increased after Mark
Dowie, its chief executive, said that its
role in rescuing migrants crossing the
Channel was “humanitarian work”.
He praised the volunteers’ work after
they were abused for helping over-
stretched Border Force agents.
He defended the volunteers after
Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader,
said that the RNLI had become a “taxi
service for illegal immigration”.
Dowie described the criticism as
completely unacceptable and said that
he “felt for” his volunteers and staff. In
the days afterwards online gifts passed
the £200,000 mark over a 24-hour
period, up from about £7,000 on a
typical day.
The number of people viewingvolunteering opportunities on the
charity’s website increased nearly four-
fold over the same period.
Jayne George, the RNLI’s fund-
raising director, told The Observer: “At
the end of the year, we’re going to have
more members, we’re going to have
more cash donors and more people
who give to us via direct debit.
“The majority of our most successful
cohorts of fundraisers are in the major
cities. We’ve got a Leeds business
branch that is really successful and two
committees in London that have raised
significant sums of money, and also
Birmingham as well.”I’ve been lucky... but cancer will probably get me in the end, says Alagiah
still. It’s growing very slowly,” Alagiah
said. “My doctor’s very good at every
now and again hitting me with a big red
bus full of drugs, because the whole
point about cancer is it bloody finds a
way through and it gets you in the end.
“Probably ... it will get me in the end.
I’m hoping it’s a long time from now, but
I’m very lucky.”
When he was diagnosed it took him a
while to understand what he “needed to
do”. He said: “I had to stop and say, ‘hang
on a minute. If the full stop came now,would my life have been a failure?’ And
actually, when I looked at my journey
— the family I had, the opportunities
my family had, the great good fortune
to bump into [Frances Robathan], who’snow been my wife and lover for all these
years, the kids that we brought up — it
didn’t feel like a failure.”
Alagiah has had an illustrious career
as a journalist. As a foreign correspond-
ent for the BBC, he reported on events
including the Rwandan genocide, and
interviewed Nelson Mandela and
Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his role
as a specialist on Africa and the devel-
oping world.
In June 2020 he decided to take a
career break after revealing that thecancer had spread to his lungs, liver and
lymph nodes. The time has allowed him
to reflect on being vulnerable.
Asked what piece of wisdom he
would give, he said: “I think it would be
to constantly ask the question, ‘what is
it we can do together?’
“I spent a lot of my time in Africa, and
in South Africa they have a word: ubun-
tu. It’s the idea that I’m only human if I
recognise the humanity in you. There’s
this collective notion of life which I
think we have lost.”ALAMYBoy racers
lay siege to
Lord of the
Rings gorge
T
he towering
cliffs of
Cheddar Gorge
gave a visiting
JRR Tolkien
the inspiration to create
the defensive stronghold
of Helm’s Deep, where
he staged the climactic
battle of the second Lord
of the Rings novel (Will
Humphries writes).
Instead of marauding
uruk-hai, the present-
day residents of Cheddar
are under attack from
hundreds of boy racers,
who spend weekends
and evenings turning the
quiet scenic road into a
cacophonous mecca for
burning rubber and
backfiring exhausts.
Car meets have been a
long-standing issue in
the sleepy Somerset
village, with 30mph
speed limits and rock-
filled gabions failing to
deter drivers from using
the road as a raceway.
The road through the
gorge regularly tops lists
of the most scenic drives
in the country, and hasfeatured on shows such
as Top Gear and The
Grand Tour. Videos
posted on social media
show modified cars
revving along the
twisting road in front ofhundreds of appreciative
car enthusiasts. Rory
McLeod, owner of
Gordons Hotel, said:
“We overlook a car park
that was being used by
these drivers to dowheelspins and donuts,
and if you tried to
remonstrate with them
you would just get
abuse.”
On New Year’s Eve
police ejected “severalhundred”
motorists and
closed the
road amid
antisocial and
dangerous
driving.Paul Fineran, a local
councillor, said: “I’ve
had people telling me
that they have had to
move their bedroom to
the back of their house
because of the noise.”
He said Sedgemoor
district council may
obtain an injunction so
that “anyone continuing
to disregard the law will
be breaking a court
order, the penalties for
which would be up to
£20,000 fine or even a
jail sentence”.
Avon and Somerset
Police said they would
use retrospective powers
to issue warnings and
“seize vehicles of repeat
offenders”.
Matt Helliker, a
professional climber who
grew up locally, said; “I
think that Jeremy
Clarkson and the Top
Gear team who regularly
used the gorge to
showcase cars have
something to do with
the problem. Car
enthusiasts want to
follow the
programme’s
footsteps and
residents suffer.”Cheddar Gorge inspired
Helm’s Deep in The Lord of
the Rings, a fortress at
which Gandalf, played
by Ian McKellen, foughtGeorge Alagiah has said he feels
“lucky” for the life he has lived, even
though cancer will “probably get me in
the end”.
The BBC newsreader, 66, who was
diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer
in April 2014, discussed living with the
disease in the podcast Desperately
Seeking Wisdom, with Craig Oliver, the
former Downing Street director of
communications.
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to
get rid of this thing. I’ve got the cancer
George Alagiah
was diagnosed
with bowel cancer
in April 2014The RNLI said that saving migrants in
the Channel was humanitarian work