Keir Starmer has warned those within the Labor Party who still support the free movement of migrants that it will lead to chaos. Photo: Steve Finn
Left-wing campaigners calling for open border migration are wrong, Sir Keir Starmer has said, promising to “dramatically reduce” the number of small boat crossings by stopping people smugglers.
Labour leader warned those within the party who still support free movement of migrants it would lead to chaos as he outlined his plans to tackle illegal migration at an event in Dover.
Sir Keira was accompanied by Natalie. Elphicke, a Conservative MP who defected to his party on Wednesday.
He also pledged to cancel Rishi Sunak's flights to Rwanda “immediately” after coming to power and starting negotiations with the EU on a return deal migrants and remained in the country. European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), even if it has not been reformed.
Sir Keir refused to set a time frame for stopping the boats or put a “false number” on the scale of any reduction in crossings he had hoped for, but he said he was committed to reducing it “substantially” and would “love to see that happen”.
About 211 people arrived on small boats Thursday, bringing this year's total to more than 9,000, up 35 percent from last year and 16 percent higher than 2022.
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Sir Keir said his plan to create a new Border Security Command to coordinate efforts to break up smuggling gangs, coupled with a tough approach to returning rejected asylum seekers, would be a more effective deterrent to small boats than the Rwandan scheme.
Acknowledging that his immigration plans would be met with “fierce resistance”, he told left-wing activists who believed “people should be able to move around the world wherever, whenever and how they want” that it would “lead to chaos”. and did “nothing to promote global justice.”
But he also criticized those on the right who wanted the British state to “act with impunity, breaking rules at whim, because ultimately they don't want so that we accept any asylum seekers at all.”
Asked whether a Labor government would stop flying to Rwanda on its first day in power, Sir Keir said: “There will be no flights scheduled or taking off after the general election if Labor wins that general election.”
“I I think this scheme is a trick. I'm not flogging a dead horse, I'm not ready to run the government with tricks. I want to start from day one, not with flights taking off, [but] putting my full political capital into law enforcement.”
People believed to be migrants leave by bus from a Border Force compound in Dover, Kent, after small boats cross the English Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA
He said he would negotiate with the EU to replace the Dublin Return Agreement, scrapped by Brexit, under which European countries would take back migrants from the UK if they crossed their borders and the UK agreed take some back for family reunification. /p>
“The Dublin agreement – it needs to be replaced in one form or another, I agree with that, so that there is a possibility of a return,” he said.
But he ruled out any UK involvement in a wider scheme in which northern states share the burden of accepting migrants with southern European countries or pay them compensation.
He rejected calls to reform the ECHR, saying: “I think it would be a mistake to think that the problem lies with international instruments such as the ECHR. I don't. By the end of the year, 100 thousand people will arrive whose applications cannot be considered.
—That means they cannot be returned. It is not the ECHR that says this. This is because the government does not consider the claims.”
The Labor Party has said it will consider the asylum claims of more than 90,000 migrants who entered the UK illegally if it wins the election. They are currently “in limbo” as their asylum claims are deemed inadmissible under legislation introduced by the government.
Sir Keir Starmer with Natalie Elphicke, Labour's new MP, during a visit to Dover to outline his plans to tackle the small courts crisis if his party wins the general election. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA
Sir Keir admitted that the Labor government would have nowhere to send thousands of migrants coming from, for example, Afghanistan and Syria due to the lack of a return agreement with the two war-torn countries.
Afghans made up the largest nationality of migrants crossing English Channel over the past 18 months, while Syrians also feature in the top ten nationalities.
Under plans outlined on Friday, Labor will create a new border security command under the creation of a former police chief, army or intelligence and based on an approach to counter-terrorism operations that Sir Keir said has already proven to be effective.
The new command will bring together officers from agencies such as MI5, Immigration Police and the National Security Agency crime has focused efforts on stopping people smugglers.
James Cleverley, the home secretary, said Labor had “no plan to stop the boats” and would “create a safe haven for criminal gangs”. He said: “Labour's announcement will make Britain the asylum capital of the world.”
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