People smuggling should be treated “on par” with terrorism, says Starmer
People smuggling should be treated “on par” with terrorism, Sir Keir Starmer said, promising new measures to prevent small boat crossings if Labor wins the next general election.
Part of the plan would be to deepen intelligence ties with Europe as part of a new post-Brexit security pact and strengthen powers to restrict the movement of people suspected of organized immigration crime.
The Labor leader said: “The first priority of any government is national security – protecting the British people from threats coming from here and abroad.”
“The government’s failure to crack down on the criminal smuggling gangs that organize boat crossings has become so serious that I believe it needs to be viewed on par with the other three major security threats we face: climate change, hostile foreign powers and Terrorism.”
As part of its plans, Labor wants to work on a new agreement to share real-time information with the EU, similar to the Schengen Information System II, a database of terror suspects and immigration offenders that the UK had automatic access to before Brexit.
The party has also promised to strengthen powers to restrict the movement of people smugglers by making it quicker and easier to obtain civil orders, known as serious crime prevention orders, to target offenders such as terrorists and drug traffickers.
The plans would station more British officers in Europe and create a “cross-border police force” focused solely on breaking up criminal gangs, Labor said.
In an interview with The Times newspaper, Sir Keir said he would also seek an EU-wide return deal for asylum seekers arriving in Britain, which could include accepting quotas for migrants from the bloc as a “quid pro quo”.
Funding for the measures would be redirected from the government’s Rwanda plan, which is currently pending in court amid a series of legal challenges.
The plan aims to prevent crossings of the English Channel by sending some asylum seekers arriving in the UK to the UK or another “safe third country”. However, critics believe it is unworkable.
Sir Keir wants to underline his credibility as a former director of public prosecutions during a visit to The Hague with Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper this week.
A tough stance on immigration crime is seen as important in convincing swing voters that Labor can curb the number of Channel crossings, which rose to over 23,000 in 2023, ahead of a general election expected next year.
“My Labor government will be twice as ruthless to break up the gangs and secure Britain’s borders,” Sir Keir said.
“These criminal smuggling gangs are gloating over the government’s failings, while the Tories spout empty rhetoric about illegal immigration for cheap headlines.”
Sir Keir’s meeting with Europol officials in The Hague comes ahead of a trip to Montreal, Canada, for a summit of “progressive” politicians.
He is also reportedly due to be received by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris next week.
The Labor leader met several European leaders during his time in office, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and then Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.
He may also be eyeing a White House meeting in the coming months with U.S. President Joe Biden, whose “Bidenomics” and groundbreaking green subsidy push have drawn admiration from the opposition.
A Tory spokesman said Sir Keir was “opening the door to the voluntary admission of even more illegal migrants from the EU”.
“Sir Keir is part of the same failed politics that is failing to make the necessary long-term decisions to tackle this problem. He clearly doesn’t care about illegal immigration and is trying to find the easy way out. “Basically, his ideas would do nothing other than weaken our tough measures,” he said.
The provisional total number of Channel crossings for the year so far is still lower than this time last year, when around 27,000 had already been recorded.
But more than 3,000 have crossed the border since the beginning of September, compared with about 2,600 in the first 10 days of the same month in 2022.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/keir-starmer-yvette-cooper-the-hague-europe-british-b1106887.html People smuggling should be treated “on par” with terrorism, says Starmer
