THE government must stop shirking its asylum responsibilities, campaigners demanded on Monday as the Prime Minister met his Italian counterpart.

Sir Keir Starmer joined Georgia Meloni in Rome, where he said he was “very interested” in Italy’s efforts to lower migration.

He claimed his government had returned to “British pragmatism” on migration and that he was particularly keen to hear about Ms Meloni’s work to tackle “upstream” issues with migration, rather than her agreement with Albania.