Starmer ‘absolutely convinced’ smashing gangs is correct approach to small boats

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

The Prime Minister has faced criticism from his political opponents for diverting efforts to tackle unauthorised migration away from deterrents like the Rwanda plan.

But speaking after a summit on small boats chaired by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Sir Keir was adamant that the Government’s new approach was the correct one.

The summit comes at the end of a week which saw at least 12 people die after their boat was “ripped apart” off the northern French coast while they attempted to cross the Channel.

Sir Keir told the BBC the priority “has to be on taking down the gangs that are exploiting vulnerable people, including children”, following the summit.

He added: “I’m absolutely convinced that we can do the hard job of taking down these gangs who are exploiting people by putting them in boats to go across the Channel. We’re elected as a Government of change. We’re beginning that work already.”

Sir Keir also suggested the Government had made progress since it “refocused attention” after scrapping the Rwanda scheme, adding: “We’re bearing down on this operational summit. That’s the right thing to do. But we did inherit a broken system, and that’s why the numbers are currently so high.”

Ms Cooper had earlier told broadcasters the purpose of the meeting was to ensure people smugglers will “not be able to get away with” putting lives at risk.

The Home Secretary said crossings were down in July and August compared to previous years, but lives were still being lost and smuggling gangs were still operating along the French coast.

She stressed that the new Government was hiring more investigators for the National Crime Agency (NCA) and working closely with other European nations to address the issue.

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

An analysis commissioned by the Home Secretary which dives into the gangs’ capability was expected to be examined at the summit, which also considered closer collaboration with European agencies such as Europol, and advancing the new Border Security Command.

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

Since the general election, 8,754 people have made the crossing, less than in the same two-month period in either 2022 or 2023.

Former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson suggested the Government is to blame for the most recent deaths in the Channel after it scrapped the Rwanda plan.

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

Tory former immigration minister Robert Jenrick earlier accused Sir Keir and Ms Cooper of having “surrendered to the smuggling gangs” after scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda policy.

Mr Jenrick, the current frontrunner for the Tory leadership, said: “Yvette Cooper will meet the National Crime Agency and police chiefs today, and they’ll tell her what they told me when I was the minister, which is that although it’s important that we do that work, it is not sufficient.

“You have to have a deterrent.”