Labour detention plan not likely to stop small boats, says former head of Border Force
Labour’s plan to increase detention capacity is unlikely to stop small boat crossings and the “only real solution” is a deal with the EU, the former head of the UK’s Border Force has said.
Tony Smith told Sky News while the new government’s announcements – including reopening removal centres and staffing up the National Crime Agency (NCA) – showed it was “serious about immigration enforcement”, the challenge is vast.
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The scepticism comes as a local MP in the area where one of the detention facilities is located vowed to fight the plan, saying the site has a “dark history” and accusing Labour of dodging scrutiny.
Mr Smith said that while the now-scrapped Rwanda scheme would have targeted people from high-intake countries – essentially those who would qualify for asylum – the focus now is on a smaller cohort of people who have no right to remain.
That will likely only lead to a “fairly modest” increase in removals, he said.
He added: “There are steps under way in the Home Office to try to raise the removals rate which are all good things.
“But it’s going to be a big ask to see what kind of a dent this makes on small boat and irregular migration intake going forward.”
Tony Smith – former director general of the UK Border Force
‘Only so much government can do’
The Tories’ flagship Rwanda scheme intended to send people who arrived in the UK by small boat to Kigali to have their asylum claims processed there. If they were successful, they would have been granted refugee status to stay in the East African nation, not the UK.
The controversial plan failed to get off the ground after years of legal challenges, with Sir Keir Starmer declaring it “dead and buried” within days of taking office.
Labour’s returns plan is different in that it will target people who are here illegally – for example, if their asylum claims are rejected because their home country is deemed safe.
However, Mr Smith said it is not always easy to remove failed asylum seekers, while lots of people who arrive by small boat will likely qualify for protection if they are coming from places like Iraq and Syria.
The prime minister’s commitment to instead “smash the gangs” who smuggle people into the UK is “the right thing” he said, but “there’s only so much the government can do”.
“This is international organised crime. It requires an international approach,” Mr Smith said.
In his view, the “only real solution” is a third-country agreement with the EU, such as sending migrants who cross the Channel back to France.
However, while “that is possible in international law”, it would be “politically difficult” as the bloc would want something in return.
Pic: PA
Returns down 40%
Labour campaigned on a manifesto to scrap the Rwanda scheme, calling it an unworkable “gimmick” that had already cost £700m without anyone having been sent there.
It vowed to divert the money into a “Border Security Command” to tackle people-smuggling gangs bringing migrants across the Channel, as well as clearing the asylum backlog to save money on hotels and removing people with no right to be here.
According to the Home Office, the removal of failed asylum seekers had dropped 40% since 2010, the start of the Conservatives’ 14-year period in government before they were ousted in July.
Plans announced this week include bolstering the National Crime Agency (NCA) with up to 100 new specialist intelligence officers to disrupt immigration gangs and targeting businesses which employ illegal immigrants.
Labour also said they would increase detention capacity by re-opening two Immigration Removal Centres (IRC) – Campsfield House in Oxfordshire and Haslar in Hampshire – initially with 290 beds.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the beefed-up NCA will work with Europol to help “smash criminal smuggling gangs”, while increasing returns will “establish a system that is better controlled and managed, in place of the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long”.
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Labour ‘dodging scrutiny’
But Ms Cooper’s opposite number, shadow home secretary James Cleverly, said it was a “pathetic response to a really challenging situation”.
And Lib Dem MP Calum Miller said repairing the immigration system “should be done thoughtfully, not through a mid-summer press release when there can be no parliamentary scrutiny”, as he warned he would fight the plan to reopen Campsfield House in his Bicester and Woodstock constituency.
The site closed in 2019 after years of problems including hunger strikes, self harm and suicides.
“When people are raising questions about how existing regimes are being administered, it’s very questionable why you would then rush to expand it,” Mr Miller said.
“I don’t think this is about just having a concern about a local question. It is about a national policy question. And I do believe that MPs across the House will share those concerns.”
Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage might be polar opposites when it comes to politics – but they do have one thing in common.
The pair are both cutting through in a changing media landscape when attention is scarce and trust in mainstream politics is scarcer still.
For Farage, the Reform UK leader, momentum has been building since he won a seat at the general election last year and he continues to top the polls.
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Badenoch doesn’t want to talk about Farage
But in the six weeks since Polanski became leader of the Greens, membership has doubled, they’ve polled higher than ever before while three Labour councillors have defected. Has the insurgent firebrand finally met his match?
“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and disagree with him on almost everything,” Polanski tells Sky News.
“But I think his storytelling has undoubtedly cut through and so yes there has been a huge part of us saying ‘If Farage can do that with a politics of hate and division, then it’s time for the Green Party to do that with a politics of hope and community’ and that’s absolutely what I intend to keep doing.”
Polanski was speaking after a news conference to announce the defections of the councillors in Swindon – a bellwether area that is currently led by a Labour council and has two Labour MPs, but was previously controlled by the Tories.
It is the sort of story the party would previously have announced in a press release, but the self-described “eco populist” is determined to do things differently to grab attention.
He has done media interviews daily over the past few weeks, launched his own podcast and turbocharged the Greens social media content – producing slick viral videos such as his visit to Handsworth (the Birmingham neighbourhood where Robert Jenrick claimed he saw no white people).
Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors
Polanski insists that it is not increased exposure in and of itself that is attracting people to his party but his messaging – he wants to “make hope normal again”.
“I’m not going to be in a wetsuit or be parachuting from a helicopter”, he says in a swipe at Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.
“I think you only need to do stunts if you don’t have something really clear to say and then you need to grab attention.
“I think when you look at the challenges facing this country right now if you talk about taxing wealth and not work, if you talk about the mass inequality in our society and you talk about your solidarity with people living in poverty, with working-class communities, I think these are the things that people both want to hear, but also they want to know our solutions. The good news is I’ve got loads of solutions and the party has loads of solutions. “
Some of those solutions have come under criticism – Reform UK have attacked his policy to legalise drugs and abolish private landlords.
Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA
Polanski is confident he can win the fight. He says it helps that he talks “quite quickly because it means that I’m able to be bold but also have nuance”. And he is a London Assembly member not an MP, so he has time to be the party’s cheerleader rather than being bogged down with case work.
As for what’s next, the 42-year-old has alluded to conversations with Labour MPs about defections. He has not revealed who they are but today gave an idea of who he would welcome – naming Starmer critic Richard Burgon.
Like Burgon, Polanski believes Starmer “will be gone by May” and that the local elections for Labour “will be disastrous”.
He wants to replace Labour “right across England and Wales” when voters go to the polls, something Reform UK has also vowed to do.
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Is Zack Polanski squeezing the Labour vote?
Could the Greens be kingmakers?
Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, says this reflects a “new axis of competition” as frontline British politics shifts from a battle of left vs right to a battle of process vs anti-establishment.
Farage has been the beneficiary of this battle so far but Tryl says Polanski is “coming up in focus groups” in a way his predecessors didn’t. “He is cutting through”, the pollster says.
However, one big challenge Polanski faces is whether his rise will cause the left vote to fragment and make it easier for Farage to win – something he has said he wants to avoid at all costs.
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And yet, asked if he would form a coalition with Labour to keep Farage out of power in the event of a hung parliament, he suggested he would only do so if Sir Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister.
“I have issues with Keir Starmer as prime minister,” he says. “I think he had the trust of the public, but I would say that’s been broken over and over again. If we had a different Labour prime minister that would be a different conversation about where their values are.”
He adds: “I do think stopping Nigel Farage has to be a huge mission for any progressive in this country, but the biggest way we can stop Nigel Farage is by people joining the Green Party right now; creating a real alternative to this Labour government, where we say we don’t have to compromise on our values.
“If people wanted to vote for Nigel Farage, they’d vote for Nigel Farage. What does Keir Starmer think he’s doing by offering politics that are similar but watered down? That’s not going to appeal to anyone, and I think that’s why they’re sinking in the polls.”
A former paratrooper accused of murdering two civilians in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland 53 years ago has been found not guilty.
Soldier F – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was accused of killing James Wray and William McKinney during disorder after a civil rights parade on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
The veteran was also found not guilty of five attempted murders at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.
He had denied all seven charges.
Thirteen people were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment on the day in question.
Soldier F did not give evidence, but the court heard about previous statements from two paratroopers – known as G and H – who were in Glenfada Park North along with F.
The prosecution said their testimony was direct evidence that the defendant had opened fire in the area.
Bloody Sunday Trust undated handout photos of (top row, left to right) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John “Jackie” Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom row, left to right) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John
However, the defence argued that they were unreliable witnesses as their statements were inconsistent with each other and with other witnesses who gave evidence.
The trial was held in Belfast in front of a judge, not a jury.
Delivering his judgment, Judge Patrick Lynch said the evidence presented against the veteran fell well short of what was needed for conviction.
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Two people have died and five others were taken to hospital following a fire in Glasgow.
Emergency crews were called to the blaze at a property in Hughenden Lane in Hyndland at about 10.20pm on Monday.
Police Scotland said a man and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene.
The force said their next of kin have been informed.
Five others were taken to hospital for the effects of smoke inhalation.
Read more from Sky News:
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A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “The fire is not believed to be suspicious, and no criminality has been established.”
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