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Keir: Real policies, not Rwanda, will solve boats crisis
KEIR Starmer will today set out how Labour is to tackle the small boats crisis.
The party leader will promise to “replace Tory gimmicks” and use anti-terrorism laws to make Britain “hostile territory” for traffickers.
The announcement is being made in Dover – the arrival point for many migrants and the constituency from which Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defected to Labour on Wednesday, accusing the PM of “failing to keep our borders safe”.
Mr Starmer will say a new Border Security Command led by a former police, military or intelligence chief and paid for by axing the Tories’ Rwanda scheme will bring together the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement and MI5.
Hundreds of new specialists will work across borders to tackle trafficking gangs and the 2000 Terrorism Act will be used to seize smugglers’ phones and monitor bank accounts.
A fast-track unit will also speed up decisions on
52,000 migrants now living in taxpayer-funded accommodation as they await asylum decisions. And courts will be boosted to process claims quickly, “saving billions”. Promising to “stop the chaos, bust the backlogs and rebuild a broken system”, Mr Starmer will accuse the Government of a “talk tough, do-nothing culture”. More than 8,800 people have arrived on boats so far this year, up 32% on 2023.