SIR Keir Starmer yesterday admitted he cannot cut a deal with the tyrants ruling Iran and Afghanistan to send illegal migrants back.
The Labour leader also had to defuse a row after he said not enough undocumented Bangladeshis were being returned — singling out the state.
Part of Labour’s plan to sort out Britain’s asylum chaos is to strike returns agreements with countries overseas.
But on Wednesday’s final election TV debate, fired-up PM Rishi Sunak pointed out large numbers of the small boats migrants come from countries which the UK cannot negotiate with.
Mr Sunak ridiculed the idea of a diplomatic love-in between Sir Keir and human rights-abusing regimes.
Saying migrants were coming from Iran, Syria and Afghanistan, the Prime Minister asked him: “Will you sit down with the Ayatollahs?
“Are you going to try to do a deal with the Taliban? It’s completely nonsensical.”
At a campaign visit to the Staffordshire Potteries yesterday, Sir Keir finally conceded such removals would not happen under Labour.
He said: “There are some things that are not sensible for the asylum policy.
“That was a throwaway comment from the Prime Minister — who himself had no answer.
“Of course, in relation to their particular cases, they’re not going to be returned to Afghanistan.
“But what we can’t do is stay with this absurd situation where there’s just a growing and growing number, to which the Prime Minister has got absolutely no answer.”
Meanwhile, the opposition boss was forced to clarify he did not mean to “cause concern or offence” when he criticised the UK’s migrant returns rate to Bangladesh on The Sun’s Election Showdown.
Desperately defending Labour’s plan to scrap the Rwanda scheme, the wannabe PM had told a live audience of Sun readers: “I’ll put the staff back in the returns unit, I’ll make sure I’ve got planes going off, not to Rwanda because that’s an expensive gimmick.
“At the moment, people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed because they’re not being processed.”
Sir Keir’s comments sparked a row after he singled out the state.
But explaining what he meant, Sir Keir said: “I’ve got many Bangladeshi constituents I’ve been working with for many years.
“The reference in the debate the other day was an example of a country that is considered safe as far as asylum concerns — and one of the countries that actually has a returns agreement with us.
“That is actually a good thing that we and Bangladesh should be proud of. I certainly wasn’t intending to cause any concern or offence to any Bangladeshi community here.”
But only 108 asylum applications were recorded from the South Asian country in the past year, including dependants.
Edited clips of Sir Keir’s comments have been shared across Bangladeshi community WhatsApp groups.
On Wednesday, the deputy leader of Tower Hamlets Labour, Sabina Akhtar, resigned over the remarks.
She said in a statement: “I was a proud Labour party member, but I find I cannot be proud of this party anymore when the leader singles out my community and insults my Bangladeshi identity.”
Candidates representing other large Bangladeshi communities also moved to distance themselves from Sir Keir’s comments.
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Uma Kumaran, standing for Labour in East London, posted on X: “I understand why many are upset about an edited clip online.
“Across Stratford and Bow, we are enriched by the pioneering contributions and hard work of the British Bangladeshi people.
“I will always stand up for our Bangladeshi community.”
Amid the backlash, Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots show: “Bangladesh is an example of one of a number of countries where we have a bilateral agreement in place so that we can return people where it’s determined they don’t have a right to be here in the UK.
“I think we have seen in recent times, as well, similar arrangements with Albania that’s meant we’ve been able to speed up the processing of cases and returning people where they don’t have a right to be here.
“That’s the principle that is driving it — making sure we’ve got a fair system that works for the British people.”
