Plug porous borders

FOR as long as the island of Britain stays in the EU, our border controls will only be as good as theirs – which are porous as a sieve.

For further evidence of this, look at yesterday’s exposure of a people-smuggling gang which has spent the last decade running rings around the authorities and bringing thousands of Iranian nationals into Britain illegally.

In return for £22,000, anyone could obtain a fake Spanish passport, board a flight and – thanks to free movement rules – live and work freely in the UK.

Yesterday’s arrests were a victory for Europol but there must be countless other cases that are going undetected. Indeed, even internal Home Office estimates suggest illegal immigration is running at around 150,000 a year.

The task of taking back control of Britain’s borders – the great promise of Brexit – cannot happen soon enough.