“Control of our borders needs graft not gimmicks” - Starmer announces raft of new measures to end “talk tough, do nothing culture” on small boats

Keir Starmer will today (Friday 10 May) launch Labour's plans to tackle the Tory small boats crisis at source and upstream, with a commitment to create a new Border Security Command, led by a Border Security Commander overseeing hundreds of new specialist investigators, officers and prosecutors using tough new counter-terror powers to smash criminal smuggling gangs undermining Britain's national security. In addition to drawing together existing resources and assets a Labour Government will direct £75million of the allocated year 1 costs of the Tories' Rwanda gimmick to fund the new measures.

In a major speech on the Kent coast, Starmer will say that a Labour government will turn the page on the Tories' ‘talk tough, do nothing culture' that has led to record numbers - over 8,500 already this year - still making the perilous journey across the channel, with over 52,000 people now stuck in the Tory asylum perma-backlog living in taxpayer funded asylum accommodation and hotels, with no realistic prospect of removal, at a cost of billions each year. 

The new Command will work with international agencies cross-border to smash the gangs sending people here in the first place, and will build on the Party's existing commitment to work closely with Europol and others to put Britain's police at the heart of pan-European efforts to counter people smuggling. The announcement comes after a series of damning reports from former Army Officer and Independent Chief Inspector of Borders, David Neal identified serious issues at Britain's borders, including a lack of basic equipment, border posts left unmanned, and insufficient staff numbers.

The intervention comes after Natalie Elphicke, MP for Dover, crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the Labour Party on Wednesday (8 May). Elphicke cited Rishi Sunak's failure to keep the UK's borders secure. She said: “it's clear they have failed to keep our borders secure and cannot be trusted.” In his response, the Labour leader said: “what is the point of this failed government staggering on when the Tory MP for Dover on the front line of the small boats crisis says the prime minister cannot be trusted with our borders and joins Labour?"

Speaking from the constituency of his newest MP, Starmer will set out details of his Party's plans to create a new Border Security Command, an elite body reporting to the Home Secretary which, for the first time, will bring together all the key agencies – the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement, CPS, MI5. 

Starmer will outline the new package of measures which includes: 

• Creating a new elite Border Security Command, modelled on the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism set up by the last Labour Government, to overhaul the Government's approach to national security. 
• Creating a new Border Security Commander – a former police, military or intelligence chief – and reporting directly to the Home Secretary, the new Command will direct work across key intelligence and enforcement agencies with a single aim of ensuring a strong, protected border. 
• Hiring hundreds of additional specialist investigators, intelligence agents and cross-border police officers, who will support the Border Security Command unit and work across the UK and Europe, split across multiple agencies, including the National Crime Agency, MI5, Border Force, CPS International and Immigration Enforcement.

The Party's new Command will be additionally funded by diverting a portion (£75 million allocated for year 1) of the money being wasted on the Tories' Rwanda gimmick. 

Starmer will reiterate Labour's plan to replace the extortionate scheme, which is costing the country over half a billion pounds for just 1% of asylum seekers, and instead direct resource into securing Britain's borders, with a package of measures to increase enforcement, introduce tough new counter terror powers to smash the smuggling gangs and bring in new rules to increase returns.

Starmer will also reveal that his Border Security Command will be bolstered by the use ofnew counter terrorist powers to tackle the small boats problem and protect Britain's borders. These include:

• Border control stop & searches for organised immigration crime – expanding powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 to ensure enhanced stop and search, including personal searches, examination and seizure of mobile devices, and copying of data found on such devices, can be used for anyone crossing the border suspected of being involved in people smuggling or trafficking
• Financial & property investigation powers for organised immigration crime – enable investigators to apply to the courts to allow early access to financial information of those suspected of people smuggling or trafficking, as well as live monitoring of their financial accounts.
• Search & seizure warrants for organised immigration crime – allowing investigators to secure a warrant to search and seize items from premises before an offence has taken place, providing they can show relevant involvement in people smuggling. Currently this power is unique to terrorism and activity related to state threats, but Labour would extend this to organised immigration crime.
• Tough civil orders for border protection, using Serious Crime Prevention Orders ahead of conviction to restrict access to the internet, banking and travel for those suspected of being involved in smuggling people across the Channel in small boats.

Announcing his new plans, Starmer expected to say that the Tory party has shown their “rank incompetence” on small boats, and that Labour's policy will “replace gimmicks with graft”. He is expected to say: “rebuilding our asylum system has become a test of political strength, a trial of leadership to resist the voices who fundamentally do not want to rebuild a functioning asylum system. 

“It's become a question of whether you can prioritize, at all times, the politics of practical solutions, and reject the politics of performative symbols - the gimmicks and gestures. 

“This is the story of what has happened to the Government, that finds itself with a record of failure as total and stark as this. It isn't just rank incompetence, it's about who the Tories are and the culture in Westminster that rewards the grand gesture and the big talk, while disregarding the small deed and detailed practical action that over time, over the course of a government, can move a nation forward, step by step.

“It's not hard to see why the Prime Minister might want a path to deterrence without the hard graft, the boring graft maybe, of fixing the wider system. But I'm afraid, like so much of what he says these days, it's sticking plasters. Gimmicks not serious government. 

“Let me spell it out again. A scheme that will only remove 1% of small boat crossings a year can not, and never will be, an effective deterrent. It's an insult to anyone's intelligence, and the gangs that run this sick trade are not easily fooled. 

“In fact – by allowing vast numbers of people into the country via this route, running up a perma-backlog of nearly 100,000 people, refusing to process the claims - so that even if they have absolutely no right to be here they cannot be removed, billing the taxpayer for expensive hotel accommodation… the Government has achieved the complete opposite of what they claim. 

“A Travelodge Amnesty, handed out by the Tory Party that, if nothing else, is warmer and safer than spending winter under canvas near a beach in Northern France. If you don't think that's what the gangs are telling the people  they exploit – you don't know them. 

“We have to restore integrity and rules to our asylum system. We have to clear the backlog. That is the path – the only path - to real deterrence.

“So we will hire hundreds of new caseworkers for the Home Office – and we'll do it immediately - we will create a new fast-track Returns and Enforcement Unit. We will ensure our courts can process claims quickly, and we will save the taxpayer billions.  

“Labour will stop the chaos. Labour will bust the backlogs. Labour will rebuild our broken asylum system.”

He will use his experience putting terrorists behind bars as the country's top prosecutor, including in the three British terrorists who, in 2009, plotted to blow up seven transatlantic flights from London, murdering more than 1,500 people. Starmer is expected to say Britain's shores will become “hostile territory” for people smugglers: “let's be clear at the start – these are criminal enterprise we are dealing with. A business that pits nation against nation, thrives in the grey areas of our rules - the cracks between our institutions - where, they believe, they can exploit some of the most vulnerable people in the world with impunity. It's a vile trade that preys on the desperation and hope it finds in its victims. 

“It is also my firm belief, after years of experience in this area, that we also need new and stronger powers to enforce the law and bring these smugglers to justice. Powers that in some areas, counter-terrorism most obviously, we have enhanced in recognition of the dangers posed to our security. Powers, like Serious Crime Prevention Orders, that, as with would-be terrorists can be used pre-conviction with High Court approval, and that can limit the ability of the gangs to conduct their vile business – before arrest: shutting off internet access, closing back accounts, tracing their movements – using information provided by the intelligence services, or powers like stop and search at the border, or raiding and seizing intelligence - before an offence has taken place”.

“I know we use the term small boats, but these boats are not, for the most part, that small. The gangs now use dinghies that are on a scale way beyond anything you would see for legitimate recreational activity. We should be working with our European partners to seize those boats, and seize material here in the U.K. to collect further evidence. We should turn over every stone and use every reasonable power - that is my message to the smugglers: these shores will become hostile territory for you.”