I’ll use MI5 to help smash small boat smuggling gangs – who are no better than terrorists
SUN readers have a right to expect security at our borders. And they have a right to expect their government to protect that security at every turn.
But with record numbers of people arriving in small boats crossing the channel to the UK – over 8,500 so far this year and rising – it’s no wonder the British people are worried.
The current system isn’t just broken, it’s bust. Wave after wave of small boats, an asylum backlog getting ever longer, and criminal gangs making a mint in the process.
The government is failing in its first duty – to keep our country safe with secure borders.
Instead of tackling the problem upstream and going after the gangs running the trade, our government is letting thousands of boats arrive on our shores with a costly gimmick trying to stop it.
There’s no clearer example of sticking plaster politics than that, and I’m pleased that Natalie Elphicke, the former Tory MP for Dover, has joined the Labour Party citing Rishi Sunak’s failure to tackle the small boats crisis.
This is a serious problem, and it needs a serious answer – hard graft, not gimmicks.
We need to break the lucrative model being used overseas by criminal gangs and stop the flow of boats coming here and overwhelming our border security teams.
Don’t just take my word for it. The Government’s own report into Border Force, commissioned by former Home Secretary Priti Patel, found an organisation “struggling to get out of a cycle of crisis management”.
It concluded that “a whole-system approach” was needed to stop illegal entry by small boats, with enforcement and intelligence agencies working together cross-border to smash the gangs sending people here in the first place. I’m determined to deliver that.
When I was the country’s chief prosecutor, I smashed terrorist gangs abroad, ironically winning praise from the then Home Secretary, Theresa May.
If elected Prime Minister, I would smash people-smuggling gangs like I smashed terrorist gangs. And this is how.
We will end the chaos of multiple different agencies operating at our border, working in siloes, not sharing data and intelligence on the activity of these evil gangs.
Instead, Labour will create a new elite Border Security Command. It will bring together the best brains and the best technology and intelligence to stay one step ahead of the gangs.
It will work cross-border with the likes of Europol to go after the gangs upstream in France, Germany, Turkey and elsewhere.
‘End the chaos’
We will use new powers to access bank accounts, track internet use, and follow movements of the criminals in the gangs.
These vile people smugglers are no better than terrorists, and we should treat them as such.
They are a threat to the nation’s security and a threat to life, so we need to use counter terrorist powers to go after them – that means stop and search powers at the border including personal searches and the seizure of mobile phones for anyone crossing the border suspected of people smuggling.
Crucially, our plans will bolster our border security so Sun readers can have trust in the asylum system again
We will go further. Britain has one of the finest security services in the world.
So, we will use the skills of MI5, train hundreds of top investigators and get to work hunting down, arresting and jailing the people smugglers.
The only real deterrent is a system that works. That’s why a new Returns and Enforcement Unit will end the Tory chaos – where currently tens of thousands of asylum seekers are not being processed, detained, or removed. We will recruit more people to the unit to bust the backlog.
There will be no amnesties. We will uphold our proud tradition as a nation of supporting those fleeing persecution.
And at the same time, we will work at speed to send back those who shouldn’t be here. In doing so, Labour will end the use of hotels for asylum seekers which is costing the taxpayer almost £8m a day.
Crucially, our plans will bolster our border security so Sun readers can have trust in the asylum system again.
We need to end the chaos and decline of the Tory years and get Britain back on its feet. That can only happen with change – and a Labour government.