Police chief who oversaw lockdown police operation to lead border security command

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has appointed the police chief who oversaw enforcement of lockdown laws during the COVID-19 pandemic to lead the new Border Security Command.

Martin Hewitt, former chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council, will lead the unit responsible for tackling organised illegal immigration and the criminal smuggling gangs that facilitate it.

The prime minister’s office said in a statement on Sunday that Hewitt led strategic coordination between police forces and played a key role in shaping the response to national threats such as terrorism, organised crime and illegal immigration.

“His leadership has been most visible in managing the UK’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, coordinating policing efforts,” Starmer’s office said.

In his new role, Hewitt will work with law enforcement, intelligence agencies and European colleagues to secure the UK’s borders.

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He said in the announcement: “For too long, the criminal gangs that smuggle people through Europe have abused our borders in the name of profit, and they are responsible for the deaths of dozens of vulnerable, innocent people.

“We will dismantle them, bring them to justice and prevent them from lining their pockets through exploitation and deceit.”

The announcement came on the day that French authorities confirmed that eight more migrants had died while attempting to cross the English Channel. Fifty-three people were on board a boat that got into trouble off the coast of Ambleteuse in northern France after it is believed to have struck rocks shortly after setting off.

The new head of Border Security Command accompanied Starmer on a visit to Italy on Monday to talk to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni about her country’s 60 percent drop in illegal maritime immigration over the past year.

Meloni’s strategy involves a combination of tackling organised illegal immigration crime, working with North African countries to prevent Mediterranean crossings and a processing agreement with Albania, which has been compared to the programme in Rwanda.

Starmer announced he would abandon plans by the previous Conservative government to send immigrants who arrived in the UK illegally back to Rwanda for processing and integration, a move the Conservatives said was a key deterrent to illegal immigration.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast on Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper attempted to draw a distinction between the two deportation regimes, saying they are “very, very different”.

Cooper said: “First of all, this is Italian processing that is taking place in Albania. It is under the supervision of the UNHCR, so it is monitored to ensure that it meets international standards.

“It’s done in collaboration between those two countries. What they’re really doing is looking at the people who are arriving in Italy, who are coming from mostly safe countries, and they’re using it as a way to accelerate decisions and returns.”

Work with upstream countries

Meloni told a news conference in Rome that Starmer had shown “great interest” in Italy’s deal with Albania.

However, Starmer indicated he was more interested in Italy’s efforts to tackle the source problems of illegal immigration.

The British Prime Minister said the fall in illegal immigration into Italy “is probably more due to the work that the Prime Minister (Meloni) has done upstream.”

Starmer said: “I have always argued that it is much better to prevent people from leaving their country in the first place than to try to deal with those who have arrived in one of our countries. I was very interested in that.”

Speaking to reporters, Starmer called the Rwanda plan a “gimmick” that cost £700 million and resulted in just four volunteers going to the African country, before declaring that his government had overseen “the largest flight ever taken off to take people back to their countries of origin.”

“There have actually been flights under this government, not to Rwanda, but back to their countries of origin, carrying 3,000 people who should not have been here,” Starmer said.

The Prime Minister says the proposed Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will bring powers similar to anti-terrorism laws, allowing law enforcement agencies to investigate, stop and prosecute those facilitating organised illegal immigration.

PA Media contributed to this report.