Starmer: Taking down gangs ‘single most effective way’ to stop small boats

Breaking people smuggling gangs and “anything else we can do” to stop people leaving their countries in the first place are “the right thing”, Sir Keir Starmer said.

He said that he had discussed stopping smuggling gangs with his counterparts in Germany, Italy and France.

The comments come as official figures show that over 800 migrants crossed the English Channel in the last week and after a report that ministers were planning to strike deals with a number of countries to stop people trying to cross to the UK.

Speaking to reporters on the way to the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Sir Keir said: “I don’t think this is an area where we should just do one thing. We have got to do everything that we can.

“I am absolutely clear in my mind that taking down the gangs is the single most effective way of stopping the boats going across the Channel.

“People are making a huge amount of money for the journeys people are making across obviously several countries to the north coast of France.

“Intercepting and taking those gangs down is hugely important and it will be one of the biggest disincentives if we can break the gangs that are running these.”

He said that “bearing down” on the gangs is really important.

“Anything else we can do to stop people leaving in the first place is the right thing, whatever point of impact and then obviously the returns are very important when people do get here, that’s why I am pleased a large number of people have been returned.”

The Sunday Times had reported that ministers were planning to strike “cooperation and security” agreements with other countries.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who will be at the G20 summit, has made deals with Tunisia and Libya that have seen a 62% fall in arrivals to Italy over the first seven months of 2024.

Those deals involve payments to countries that have high levels of emigration to encourage them to do more to prevent migrants attempting to make the journey.

The Prime Minister declined to go into detail about any arrangements following the Times’ report, but said: “We have done a lot of work on returns since we have come into Government.”

He said that “a lot” of his “time and focus” has been on “taking down the gangs” and has featured in discussions with Emmanuel Macron of France, Olaf Scholz of Germany and Ms Meloni.

Latest figures from the Home Office and Border Force show 425 people arrived on Saturday in nine boats, bringing the total for the past seven days to 871 people.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said prevention deals are a “constructive step” but would not work without a deterrent, as he defended the previous government’s Rwanda deportation scheme.

“(The Government) are not proposing, as far as I can see, to have a returns agreement with those countries. They’re proposing to work with those countries to prevent departures in the first place,” he told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

“Now that’s all well and good. I’m perfectly happy to support that, but it’s not going to work as a deterrent.

“To deter people, they need to know that if they illegally and dangerously cross the English Channel, they’re going to be immediately removed somewhere else. And that’s what Rwanda did. These deals don’t do that.”

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh meanwhile did not confirm or deny that the Government is negotiating with Libya, Tunisia and Kurdistan.

Ms Haigh was grilled as to how such preventive migration schemes with third countries were different to the Rwanda plan which Labour were highly critical of and ended upon entering Government.

She told Sky News: “Rwanda wasn’t working well before we scrapped it on coming into office, it was costing the taxpayer a fortune.

“It clearly wasn’t working as a deterrent, and it wasn’t resolving the issue at source – what we’re talking about is resolving the issue upstream.

“So, tackling and smashing the gangs as Keir Starmer has repeatedly talked about in order to stop the boats coming over at all, the Rwanda scheme wasn’t deterring boats.”

She would not be drawn on the potential cost of individual deals, adding: “What I can say is this absolutely characterises our approach, working with international partners in a long term, serious way.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This is an international challenge, that needs international cooperation.

“We have already made significant progress, with overall returns since this Government came to office now at 9,400 – up almost 6,000 since the end of August.

“We continue to work upstream with partners from across the world to tackle these illegal people smuggling gangs.

“Our new Border Security Command is at the heart of this work, enhancing international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal networks.”