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Keir Starmer has made a point of not pledging to “stop the boats” – considered one of the biggest mistakes of his predecessor, Rishi Sunak.
Britain’s new prime minister refused to use the phrase when questioned by journalists about illegal migrant crossings of the Channel.
He was speaking on his way to the Nato summit in Washington DC, where President Joe Biden faces his own “migrant crisis” on the Mexican border.
One of Sir Keir’s first acts was to cancel the Rwanda deportation flights policy, which Mr Sunak had fought tooth and nail to put in place.
Bringing a halt to illegal Channel crossings was one of five key pledges Mr Sunak made to voters in January 2023.
He had hoped removing migrants to Rwanda would act as a deterent to those looking to make the dangerous trip to the UK, but the plan was beset by legal challenges and not a single asylum seeker was deported to the East African country.
Sir Keir said the Sunak plan was “a gimmick” and that, instead, he intends to tackle the criminal gangs behind people smuggling.
But asked in the press conference whether it is his specific aim to “stop the boats”, Sir Keir paused and was silent until another question came.
Before that, the prime minister had said: “I have always said the previous government’s Rwanda policy was a gimmick, it wouldn’t be a deterrent. They argued, if I recall, that even the passing of the legislation would be a deterrent. It clearly hasn’t worked, wasn’t going to work – we’ve had record numbers coming over this year.
“That, unfortunately, is what we’ve inherited – we can’t change that overnight.”
He appeared to admit that the crisis may get worse before it gets better.
Sir Keir said: “It can’t be changed overnight. What we can do is set up our first steps straight away. The Border Security Command… the Home Secretary made a statement in relation to that in terms of setting the command up.
“This a command that will lead on smashing the gangs and, as I’ve said many times before, having been myself part of operations that have taken down gangs – police and prosecutors across borders gathering evidence and intelligence, sharing data, having an arrest strategy, a prosecution strategy, an evidence strategy has successfully brought down many gangs, including terrorist gangs.
“I do not accept these are the only gangs that can’t be brought down. I’m determined that our Border Security Command working with others will do so. That’s why it’s got such a rich mix of security and intelligence, alongside prosecutors, alongside law enforcement. And we will get on with the recruitment and setting up that command at speed.”
Pressed again on his ambition around “stopping the boats”, he said: “Nobody but nobody should be making these crossings. The numbers are going up, not down. That is why we want to smash the gangs to stop those crossings.
“What I’m not going to do is pick an arbitrary date, an arbitrary number because that hasn’t worked in the past. But I do want to be clear that my intention is to break down the gangs that are running this vile trade putting people into boats on the coast of France. Nobody but nobody should be making that crossing.”
