Starmer ‘absolutely convinced’ that smashing up gangs is the right approach to small boats – The Irish News

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “absolutely convinced” that dismantling criminal gangs ferrying people across the Channel in small boats is the way to tackle the migrant crisis.

The Prime Minister was criticised by his political opponents for diverting the fight against illegal migration from measures such as the Rwanda Plan.

But after a small boat summit chaired by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Sir Keir was adamant the government’s new approach was the right one.

The summit comes at the end of a week in which at least 12 people died after their boat was “torn apart” off the northern French coast as they tried to cross the Channel.

Sir Keir told the BBC after the summit that the priority “must be tackling the gangs who exploit vulnerable people, including children”.

He added: “I am absolutely confident that we can carry out the difficult task of taking down these gangs who exploit people by putting them in boats to cross the Channel. We have been elected as a government of change. We are already starting that work.”

Sir Keir also suggested that the government had made progress since “refocusing” its attention after scrapping the Rwanda plan, adding: “We are pressing ahead with this operational summit. That is the right thing to do. But we have inherited a broken system, and that is why the numbers are so high at the moment.”

Ms Cooper had previously told broadcasters the aim of the meeting was to ensure people smugglers “cannot get away with it” by putting lives at risk.

According to the interior minister, there were fewer border crossings in July and August than in previous years, but lives were still lost and smuggling gangs were still active along the French coast.

She stressed that the new government is hiring more detectives for the National Crime Agency (NCA) and working closely with other European countries to tackle the problem.

Senior ministers including Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Attorney General Lord Hermer also attended Friday’s summit at the NCA’s London headquarters, along with representatives from the NCA, Border Force and the Intelligence Service.

The summit was expected to discuss an analysis commissioned by the Home Secretary that maps the gangs’ capabilities. It also discussed closer cooperation with European agencies such as Europol and the development of the new Border Security Command.

This week, 1,276 people have already crossed the Channel, bringing the total so far this year to 22,328 – some 648 more than at the same point last year, but 5,269 fewer than in 2022.

Since the general election, 8,754 people have crossed the border, fewer than in the same two-month period in 2022 or 2023.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed that the government is responsible for the latest deaths in the Channel after it scrapped the Rwanda plan.

Mr Johnson, whose government first initiated the Rwanda plan, said in a video on X, formerly Twitter: “With another 12 people dying in the Channel this week, including six children and a pregnant mother, and with the Germans themselves taking an interest in the Rwanda policy, it’s time for Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper to admit that if you scrap a policy designed to save lives and put nothing in its place, you will be blamed for children drowning at sea.”

Former Conservative immigration minister Robert Jenrick previously accused Sir Keir and Ms Cooper of “surrendering to the smuggling gangs” after scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda policy.

Mr Jenrick, the current front-runner for the Conservative Party leadership, said: “Yvette Cooper will meet the National Crime Agency and the police chiefs today and they will tell her what they told me when I was a minister, which is that while it is important that we do that work, it is not enough.

“You have to have a deterrent.”