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Sir Keir Starmer has announced new measures to curb small boat migration to Britain through a crackdown on smuggling gangs, while reaffirming Labour’s plan to scrap the government’s Rwanda migration scheme.
Speaking in Dover on Friday, Starmer outlined the party’s strategy to tackle criminal groups operating in and around Calais and further up in countries through which asylum seekers travel to the UK.
The Labor leader’s efforts to convince the public that his party has a credible plan to reduce illegal and irregular migration comes after one of the Tory Party’s most vocal advocates for tougher border policies, Dover MP Natalie Elphicke, shocked, defected to the opposition benches on Wednesday.
In a statement, Elphicke said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had “failed to keep our borders secure and cannot be trusted.”
The Labor leader said he would immediately scrap the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to seek protection if his party wins general elections expected this year.
“The question is whether one can always prioritize the politics of practical solutions and reject the politics of performative symbols – gimmicks and gestures,” Starmer said.
“It’s about who the Tories are and the culture at Westminster that rewards the big gesture and the big talk while ignoring the small deed and the detailed practical action that emerges over time.” . can move a nation forward,” he added.
Starmer outlined plans to provide £75 million for a new Border Security Command to work closely with Europol and other European police forces to strengthen security and information sharing. This also includes a new commander who will oversee hundreds of law enforcement and intelligence officers.
David Neal, a former chief border inspector who was sacked by the Home Secretary this year, said he would welcome the opportunity to help the government improve its asylum system and protect the country’s borders.
“If I can help in any way to fix the broken asylum system, of course I will,” he told the Financial Times. “For me it’s not about partisan politics, it’s about getting to grips with and helping to fix an extremely important part of our society that should be functioning better.”
More than 8,500 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain by small boats this year, a 36 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
A spokesman for Home Secretary James Cleverly criticized Starmer’s announcement, saying the “new plan is the old plan that is not a plan”.
“All our efforts are aimed at disrupting the business model of criminal smuggling gangs, banning the equipment required for small boat crossings, working with European partners to arrest and prosecute smugglers and blocking their money flows,” he said .