That was Sir Keir Starmer’s account of himself and his decision to let Natalie Elphicke into the Labour Party on our trip to Dover on Friday to unveil his plan to stop the small boats.
Because for all the controversy her arrival on the Labour benches caused this week, for Sir Keir it was worth it.
It allowed him to take the fight on migration directly to the frontline, Dover, and stand next to the now Labour MP, Ms Elphicke, telling the cameras that Mr Sunak had “failed to keep the borders secure” and “can’t be trusted”.
Rishi Sunak had wanted the television bulletins to lead on turning the economic corner and “sticking with the plan”.
That’s not what he got.
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Instead, the Labour leader used the Elphicke defection to skewer Rishi Sunak on small boats on the very day the prime minister wanted to get back on the front foot about the economy.
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Starmer commits fully to stopping Rwanda plan in Sky News interview
Starmer goes further than before in attack on Rwanda ‘gimmick’
Sir Keir did qualify his ruthlessness as not an end in itself.
“I’m ruthless in trying to ensure we have a Labour government who can change this country for the better,” he explained to me.
“Not ruthless for my own ambition, not ruthlessness particularly for the Labour Party. I’m ruthless for the country.
“The only way we’ll bring about a change in this country is if we’re ruthless about winning that general election and putting in place a government of public service, that’ll be a major change in politics.”
Calling the Rwanda scheme a “gimmick”, Starmer went further than he had before in our interview on Friday, telling me he will stop the flights from day one of a Labour government.
Instead, he outlined his own plan to create a new “elite” Border Security Command, made up of MI5 agents, Border Force officers, police, specialist investigators and prosecutors to target the criminal gangs.
This, he insisted, would be a better deterrent as he pledged to bring down the number of boat crossings “drastically” from the approximately 30,000 people who arrived in Britain via such crossings in 2023.
He also said he would reinstate a “rules-based asylum system” in which claims are processed and people are either returned to their country or granted asylum, as he criticised the government’s huge backlog of unprocessed claims.
Image: Sir Keir Starmer with new Labour MP Natalie Elphicke. Pic: PA
But he admitted too after his speech that a Labour government would have nowhere to send thousands of migrants who had arrived from Afghanistan or Syria due to the lack of returns agreements with these war-torn countries.
I pushed him on targets: Would he commit to getting crossings down to 2020-type levels when 8,500 people came across on small boats?
But the Labour leader wouldn’t be drawn, telling me: “I’m not going to pluck out an arbitrary number” – as he took a swipe at Mr Sunak’s promise to ‘stop the boats’.
‘He’s going to open up our borders’
Rishi Sunak, for his part, was full of disdain – arguing that Starmer’s plan was to offer “an amnesty to illegal migrants” and that the Labour leader wasn’t offering anything new.
He said: “As far as I can tell all the things that we’re talking about today, are all things that we’re already doing – punching through the backlog, having more law enforcement officers do more, that’s all happening already.
“We’ve announced all of that more than a year ago.
“When it comes to illegal migration, it’s very simple – he’s just going to scrap the Rwanda plan and open up our borders.
“We’ve got a plan and we’re going to get our planes off.”
So far in 2024, 9,037 people have crossed the channel in small boats – 35% higher than at the same stage last year.
The prime minister has promised to stop the boats and get the Rwanda flights going within weeks.
But the country is divided on the plan, and sceptical too – with a YouGov poll in April showing a straight split between those who are supportive of the plan and those who are opposed, with only 23% of respondents believing it will be effective, against 55% of people saying they think it won’t.
It is a sign of confidence that Starmer, who has had to rebuild Labour’s reputation as a party of national security and law and order in the wake of the Corbyn years, now thinks this is a fight he can take to the Tories.
That he took in a right-wing Conservative with a controversial past in order to hammer home that point shows what he’s prepared to do to win.
The question now is whether his plan is more convincing to voters than the prime minister’s.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to Downing Street once again, but Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be keen to make this meeting more than just a photo op.
On Monday the prime minister will welcome not only the Ukrainian president, but also E3 allies France and Germany to discuss the state of the war in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will join Sir Keir in showing solidarity and support for Ukraine and its leader, but it’s the update on the peace negotiations that will be the main focus of the meet up.
The four leaders are said to be set to not only discuss those talks between Ukraine, the US and Russia, but also to talk about next steps if a deal were to be reached and what that might look like.
Ahead of the discussions, Sir Keir spoke with the Dutch leader Dick Schoof where both leaders agreed Ukraine’s defence still needs international support, and that Ukraine’s security is vital to European security.
But while Russia’s war machine shows no signs of abating, a warm welcome and kind words won’t be enough to satisfy the embattled Ukrainian president at a time when Russian drone and missile attacks continue to bombard Kyiv.
Image: Keir Starmer welcoming Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Downing Street during a previous visit. Pic: AP
What is the latest in negotiations?
Over the weekend, Mr Zelenskyy said he had discussed “next steps” with US President Donald Trump’s advisers and was “determined to keep working in good faith”.
“The American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions,” Mr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “The conversation was constructive, although not easy.”
But on Sunday evening, ahead of an event at the Kennedy Center, President Trump said he was “disappointed” with Mr Zelenskyy, as was asked about the next steps in Russia-Ukraine talks following negotiations.
He said: “We’ve been speaking to President Putin and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy.
“And I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal. That was as of a few hours ago.
“His people love it. But he hasn’t – Russia’s fine with it. Russia’s you know, Russia, I guess, would rather have the whole country when you think of it. But Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it. His people love it but he hasn’t read it.”
On Saturday, Keith Kellogg, Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, had told the Reagan National Defence Forum that efforts to resolve the conflict were in “the last 10 metres”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised new US security strategy over the weekend, adding that Russia hopes this would lead to “further constructive cooperation with Washington on the Ukrainian settlement”.
Major US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is returning to India after a two-year absence from the market.
Coinbase has resumed app registrations in India as it prepares to roll out local fiat on-ramps in 2026, Coinbase APAC director John O’Loghlen announced at India Blockchain Week (IBW), according to a Sunday report by TechCrunch.
“We had millions of customers in India, historically, and we took a very clear stance to off-board those customers entirely from overseas entities, where they were domiciled and regulated. Because we wanted to kind of burn the boats, have a clean slate here,” O’Loghlen said.
Crypto-to-crypto trades available immediately
As Coinbase resumes customer onboarding in India, users can immediately execute crypto-to-crypto trades, according to the report by TechCrunch.
The exchange initially began onboarding users through an early-access program in October, around the time it hired Karan Malik as its India marketing lead.
Source: Coinbase India marketing lead Karan Malik
Malik had previously overseen marketing for last year’s IBW event, where Coinbase served as a platinum sponsor this year.
“Last year, I was leading the charge and building the marketing and brand playbook for IBW. This year, I’m bringing Coinbase to the party,” the exec said.
Coinbase ramps up push in India
Coinbase has been actively working to rebuild its relationship with the Indian government. In early December, Coinbase’s international policy adviser Katie Mitch represented the exchange before India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.
“We are optimistic on the potential for forward-looking VDA regulation in India,” she said in an X post last Thursday.
In another development last week, Priyank Kharge, IT minister for Karnataka, signed a memorandum of understanding with Coinbase India to deepen the state’s leadership in blockchain innovation and cybersecurity.
Source: Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge
Through the collaboration, the Karnataka government will collaborate with the exchange on startup incubation on Coinbase-backed Base protocol and speed up real-world applications of blockchain technology, the minister said.
As previously mentioned, Coinbase secured a license with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit in March 2025, positioning the exchange for a potential launch in the country. In August, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal also met with Karnataka’s IT minister Kharge to explore collaboration on developer tools, cybersecurity and blockchain in governance.
Cointelegraph approached Coinbase for comment regarding its relaunch in India, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Crypto giant Binance has been granted three separate licenses from Abu Dhabi’s financial regulator, providing a green light to operate its exchange, clearing house and broker-dealer services under the Financial Services Regulatory Authority’s (FSRA) regulatory framework.
The FSRA, an independent financial regulator of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a financial free zone in Abu Dhabi, has approved licenses for Binance’s Nest Exchange Limited, Nest Clearing and Custody Limited, and Nest Trading Limited, according to a news release and announcement from Binance on Monday.
Richard Teng, the co-CEO of Binance, said in a statement that the licenses provide regulatory clarity and legitimacy, enabling Binance to support its global operations from ADGM.
“While our global operations remain distributed, leveraging talent and innovation worldwide, this regulatory foundation offers our users peace of mind knowing Binance operates under a globally recognised, gold standard framework,” he said
“We are grateful for the FSRA’s forward-thinking approach, which safeguards users while fostering innovation.”
Under a February 2020 guidance, the FSRA outlines that authorised entities conducting regulated activities within the ADGM need to have “mind and management” operating out of the zone, which includes devoting resources to commercial, governance, compliance, surveillance, operations, technical, IT and HR functions.
Operating under the ADGM’s financial services regime provides Binance users with additional consumer protections, along with enhanced oversight from regulators, according to Binance. The exchange plans to start operating its “regulated activities” on Jan. 5, 2026.
Teng said in an X post on Monday that it’s an “important milestone for Binance,” because it’s become the first global exchange to secure regulatory approval from a respected regulator, and will now have its international operations and liquidity supervised end-to-end.
Binance already has a foothold in the United Arab Emirates, with its virtual asset service provider license in Dubai, which it obtained in April 2024, and a $2 billion investment from MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based artificial and technology venture firm, in March.