Malicious people smugglers use Sir Keir Starmer’s scrapping of Rwanda plan in TikTok ads for small boat crossings

Angry people smugglers are using Sir Keir Starmer’s promise that the Rwanda plan is “dead and buried” to advertise small boat crossings on TikTok.

Posts on the popular platform touting trips from Calais to Dover worth £2,500 refer to the aborted £300m asylum plan – with a reassuring note for potential migrants: “There is no chance of you being sent anywhere.”

A Sun on Sunday investigation has revealed a clip of the Prime Minister saying at a press conference three days after his election that the plan to send migrants abroad for processing would be scrapped.

The TikTok ad told Somalis trying to cross the Channel from France that there was “no chance” they could be sent back.

It said in Somali: ‘The Rwanda plan has been completed.

“There is no chance that a client will be sent anywhere.

“When you travel with us, you are in the United Kingdom.”

The post, which was removed after we reported it to TikTok, continued: “The new leader said migrants will not be allowed to go to Rwanda if they enter the UK.

“You are 100% safe when using our service.

“We are the safest.”

Disgusting trafficking bosses are using TikTok extensively to reach thousands of potential channel-hoppers from over 30 countries residing in Calais through their videos.

A bill announced by the King in his Speech from the Throne last Wednesday included provisions to criminalise people smugglers who sell places on boats to the UK through advertisements on social media.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also launched the Border Security Command last week, with a British ship towing migrants back to Calais for the first time.

Experts fear it will not stop the record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel, with 15,000 people having made the perilous journey since January.

Sir Keir previously called the £300 million Rwanda plan a “gimmick”, adding: “Look at the figures that have come in for the first six months of this year.”

Asked whether the plan had a deterrent effect, he insisted: “It has had the opposite effect.”

Last night, former minister Alec Shelbrooke called the scrapping of the Rwanda policy “a gift to the people smugglers”.

He added: “Labour will quickly learn that spouting these issues in opposition is very different from governing.

“A lot of those statements like ‘smash the gangs’ will appeal to the left, but that’s already happening.

“They have given the people smugglers a gift – it has given them free rein to exploit even more vulnerable people.”

A Labour Party spokeswoman insisted: “The Tories have cracked our asylum system and allowed criminal smuggling gangs to operate across our borders.

“The Rwanda programme has never had a deterrent effect, as evidenced by the record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel earlier this year.

“Labour’s new Border Security Command will pursue criminal gangs relentlessly, targeting their tactics and supply chains, with new counter-terrorism-style powers.”