Spain blames EU neighbours as migrant crossings surge at Ceuta

Spain has attacked what it calls the "selfish" response of some EU countries to a sharp rise in migrant crossings at Ceuta, the Spanish city on the North African coast. The BBC reports Spain's criticism of European partners, while The Independent says Trump has waded into what his administration calls a "catastrophe", blaming "radical left-wing policies".

Ceuta sits on the Mediterranean opposite Gibraltar, bordered by Morocco on three sides. It has been Spanish since the seventeenth century and is now an autonomous city of Spain, making it a rare land border between the EU and Africa. When pressure builds on that frontier, it becomes a live test of how the border-free internal market handles an external edge it cannot wish away.

The criticism from Madrid is aimed at EU states that oppose burden-sharing when the arrivals land elsewhere. The paradox: freedom of movement inside the bloc depends on a hard edge outside it, but nobody wants to hold that edge alone. Spain holds it at Ceuta; Italy and Greece hold it in the Mediterranean; the argument is over who pays and who takes the people once they are inside the perimeter. The model assumes the edge holds and the interior stays open. When one gives, both are in question.

Domestically, the Daily Express and GB News have used the Ceuta surge to press Andy Burnham - now a backbencher after stepping down as Mayor of Greater Manchester - on his national ambitions and immigration stance. Burnham's successor, Bev Craig, won the mayoral race this week; Burnham is widely assumed to be positioning for a future leadership bid.

What to watch: whether Spain's call for EU solidarity produces any burden-sharing mechanism, or whether each border state continues to hold its own edge and call for help that does not come. The gap between the rhetoric of European unity and the arithmetic of who holds the frontier is the story.