LBC’s Nick Ferrari Bursts Into Laughter Over Starmer’s Migrant Plan: “It’s Like a Scout Trip With No Tents!”

LBC radio host Nick Ferrari couldn’t stop laughing while reacting to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s new immigration idea. Starmer had recently proposed setting up “return hubs” in other countries to send people who entered the UK illegally, especially those arriving on small boats across the Channel. These return hubs would act as places to hold migrants after they’ve gone through the UK asylum process but before they’re removed from the country.

This plan comes after Starmer officially dropped the previous Conservative government’s controversial Rwanda deportation scheme. However, during a recent visit to Albania to discuss the idea, Starmer’s proposal was quickly rejected. The Albanian Prime Minister made it clear they weren’t interested in hosting any such hubs, and Nick Ferrari found the situation so ridiculous that he started laughing live on air.

Nick joked that Albania is no stranger to comedy, but the image of a British Prime Minister flying in and proposing migrant hubs — similar to the scrapped Rwanda scheme — only to be immediately shut down, was like something out of a comedy sketch. He even compared the situation to a scene from an old British comedy starring Norman Wisdom’s character Mr. Pitkin.

Starmer explained the idea by saying that if a person had gone through the UK asylum system and needed to be removed, the government would try to send them to one of these return hubs to complete the process. He said talks were ongoing to make this happen.

But Nick Ferrari criticized the lack of preparation. He questioned how the Prime Minister and his whole team could travel to Albania with such a serious proposal, only to get rejected right away. “It’s like a group of Boy Scouts going camping but forgetting their tents,” he said in disbelief.

With Albania out of the picture, Starmer is now turning to other countries like Bosnia, Serbia, and North Macedonia for possible deals. Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama explained that their current arrangement with Italy is very unique and only possible because of the countries’ close ties and geographic location. He made it clear that such a setup wouldn’t work with the UK.