Keir Starmer on migrant crisis: I’ll bring order to the border | The Labour leader is going on the attack over the Tories’ failure to stop Channel crossings, vaunting his own experience of prosecuting people smugglers

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1. Sir Keir Starmer will begin an audacious attempt this week to make Labour the party to stem illegal immigration. He will promise to “smash” the criminal gangs and “bring order to the border”.

   The Labour leader will travel to the Hague on Wednesday to meet Europol, the European Union agency for law enforcement co-operation, and discuss how a Labour government would combat criminal gangs sending people across the Channel.

   On Friday morning he flies to Montreal for a conference of centre-left leaders where he will argue that they cannot cede the subject of immigration to right-of-centre parties and will call for greater international co-operation to tackle people trafficking.

   His mission, in both cases, is to park Labour’s tanks firmly on the Conservatives’ lawn on the subject of illegal immigration and convince red wall voters that the opposition shares their concerns.
   During his trip to Europol, Starmer will outline plans to:

   • Set up a specialist cross-border cell in the National Crime Agency (NCA). This will be paid for by redirecting funds from the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme, which Labour regards as “unworkable”.

   • Send elite officers to work with border officials of “upstream” countries to disrupt the entire people-smuggling supply chain.

   • Fund more caseworkers to clear the backlog of asylum claims, which costs taxpayers £6 million a day in hotel and other accommodation for those waiting.

   Starmer will use his experience of prosecuting people smugglers to point out where the government and the NCA are failing to use the full force of the law to take on the gangs.

   “We need to spend more money on clearing the backlog to save money in the long term,” a Labour source said.
   “There is legislation which we don’t think is being applied properly. There is a lack of confidence and direction for the NCA. There is a lack of clarity around the mission to go after the people smugglers. If you want to solve the problem, the thing to do is smash the gangs. Instead, the government focuses on all these noisy issues. It’s constant gimmicks.”

   Starmer plans to use his speech at the Labour party conference in Liverpool next month to set out his vision of “hope” for the country.

   Before that, aides say he will begin a “reassurance” operation to allay the fears of swing voters in red wall seats in the north and the Midlands that Labour cannot be trusted to tackle illegal immigration.
   Senior Labour insiders say there will also be an effort later this year to reassure Leave voters who switched to the Tories in 2019 that Starmer does not want to reverse Brexit.

   Immigration has traditionally been a topic that Labour is reluctant to touch because of a combination of its internationalist traditions, the strongly pro-immigration views of much of its activist base, and the sense that this is a Tory area where there is little to be gained politically.

   However, Starmer and his chief election strategist, Morgan McSweeney, believe the government’s failure to “stop the boats” has given them an opportunity to attack. While there is a general view that the boats are difficult to deal with and that Sunak is trying hard but failing, Starmer will take a different tack this week, giving specific examples of where the government and law enforcement agencies such as the NCA are failing to use the levers at their disposal.

   This will enable Starmer to emphasise his credentials as a former director of public prosecutions.

   A senior Labour source said: “In the election, we think this is an argument we can win. We have never seen immigration as a distraction. It’s a real issue that voters are rightfully concerned about. We have never subscribed to this notion that it’s not progressive to want strong borders.

2. The main issue I think people have is overpopulation, not illegal immigration.

   People are not going to be happy with stopped boats if legal immigration is still 1 million people per year.

   The politicians don’t care about this because they mostly live in rich leafy suburbs that are not affected by these issues.

   It’s the same old story, do the absolute bare minimum, but just enough to get a news headline.

   Most of the criminal gangs operate within the UK, selling passports on telegram. The people who buy them are not coming here on boats, they arrive on ferries and planes, with passports that pass security checks.