'People smuggling gangs can expect plenty of trade this summer under Starmer's government' - Kevin Foster

As has been pointed out before much of it is already familiar to those who have seen first-hand the work to tackle channel crossings.

For example, on July 7 2024, the Labour Government confirmed its first move to “smash the gangs”: “The Border Security Commander will provide strategic direction to work across agencies, drawing together the work of the National Crime Agency (NCA), intelligence agencies, police, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force, to better protect our borders and go after the smuggling gangs facilitating small boat crossings.”

Sound familiar? It should do, as on January 31 2023, then Home Secretary Suella Braverman unveiled: “The newly created Small Boats Operational Command (SBOC), which is part of Border Force, brings together the government’s response to small boats under a single integrated structure, enhancing the work conducted alongside the military last year.”

Then there is the nail bar and hand car wash crackdown scheduled for this summer, announced with much fanfare last week by Labour.

Again, those with a good memory will recall Boris Johnson talking about the “the nail bars of East London” on April 14 2022 in a speech on illegal migration. Potential immigration abuse in these two types of businesses has been a focus for action by the Home Office for some time.

Meanwhile, Labour is talking about changing the law so a backlog of 90,000 people can be allowed to have an asylum claim processed and get people out of the asylum system.

There is nothing new in the idea if you approve lots of applications, you will get the backlog down, after all, who is going to complain about their asylum claim being granted? Yet rapidly using a rubber stamp marked “approved” is hardly going to deter small boat arrivals. Quite the opposite.

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Surely the plan to move more Home Office staff onto accelerating deportations must be new? Again, there are similarities with work done under the last Government such as the returns agreement with Albania.

Rapidly removing those who arrive in small boats will deter arrivals and there are some countries where we can work with the Government on returns, for example Vietnam or India. Yet this is often where lawfare under the ECHR comes into play. We know Labour will not be prepared to do what is necessary to secure our border if a choice between this and ECHR Membership is necessary.

Then there is the issue of countries where you cannot realistically expect enforced immigration removals to be possible, such as Afghanistan.

Keir Starmer struggled to answer during the General Election how he would deal with this, especially in the BBC Debate when Rishi Sunak asked: “Who are you going to be sitting down with? The Taliban” referring to potential returns deals.

A Third Country deal might answer this question, but having scrapped the only one in existence, the Rwanda Plan, hard to see another being available anytime soon. Labour’s Plan is not a plan, it’s exactly what it was throughout the last two years: A collection of soundbites designed to get headlines and look tough.

Yet now Labour has scrapped the Rwanda Plan, with no other third country deal in place, and is set to rubber-stamp thousands of approvals for those who arrived in small boats, the people smuggling gangs can expect plenty of trade this summer.