Sir Keir Starmer has said 24,000 people who “have no right to be here” have been returned since Labour took power as he opened the government’s border security summit.
The prime minister said it was the “highest return rate for eight years”.
Since Labour took office last July, 29,884 people have been detected crossing the Channel on 542 small boats.
A total of 6,642 people crossed between 1 January to 30 March this year – a 43% increase on the same time last year, when the Conservatives were in power.
Crossings this year passed 5,000 on 21 March, a record compared with the previous seven years since the first crossings in 2018 – and 24% higher than 2024, and 36% higher than 2023.
Interior ministers and law enforcement from more than 40 countries, including the US, Iraq, Vietnam and France, are at the summit at Lancaster House in central London.
Meta, X and TikTok representatives are also there to discuss how to tackle the online promotion of illegal migration.
Sir Keir told the gathering he was “angry” about the scale of illegal immigration around the world as he said it was a “massive driver of global insecurity”.
“The truth is, we can only smash these gangs once and for all if we work together,” he said.
“Because this evil trade, it exploits the cracks between our institutions. It pits nations against one another. It profits from our inability at the political level to come together.”
He said people smuggling should be treated as a global security threat similar to terrorism.
“None of these strategies, as you know, are a silver bullet. I know that,” he told the summit.
“But each of them is another tool, an arsenal that we’re building up to smash the gangs once and for all.”
In a speech at the organised immigration crime summit, Sir Keir Starmer pointedly told global delegates there is nothing progressive or compassionate about turning a blind eye to people smuggling.
This is as much a direct challenge to other nations as it is to those in his party who may be uncomfortable with talk of cracking down on illegal migration and making it harder to claim asylum in the UK.
In an effort to front up to the problem, the PM and home secretary both outlined the deep complexities involved in stopping the boats; interrupting supply chains, financial sanctions on gangs and blocking social media content advertising routes to the UK.
Labour’s message? Bear with us, this is harder than it looks.
But, with public patience wearing dangerously thin on small boats crossings after endless promises from Labour and the Conservatives, and with record numbers crossing the Channel – a 43% rise on this time last year – the prime minister knows he has very little time to persuade the public he can deliver.
Senior government sources tell me they are far more worried about Reform UK denting their vote share than they are about the Conservatives – and the PM’s message today indicates just that.
In his speech, Sir Keir twice cited what he called the unfairness of illegal migration: driving down working people’s wages, terms and conditions, and putting valuable public services under strain.
This shift in tone, directly juxtaposing working people with migrants, feels like a subtle yet significant tilt to voters who may be tempted by Nigel Farage’s rhetoric on migration.
However, we may begin to see some Labour MPs fidgeting in their seats as it is sure to make some of them a little uncomfortable.
Sir Keir appears to be marching up the hill the Tories died on. So will this all too familiar hike prove fatal, or will he succeed where Rishi Sunak failed?
And if Sir Keir does succeed and manages to make a significant dent in the number of small boat crossings before the next general election, Reform may not prove to be as lethal an opponent as first thought.
UK has been a ‘soft touch on migration’
The prime minister criticised the previous Conservative government for allowing illegal migration to soar, saying: “For too long the UK has been a soft touch on migration.”
He said a lack of co-ordination between the police and intelligence agencies had been an “open invitation” for people smugglers to send migrants to the UK.
Image: Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper at the summit. Pic: PA
Cooper reveals small boats gang tactics
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also spoke at the event, where she revealed some of the horrifying tactics used by gangs smuggling people over to the UK in small boats.
She said they place women and children in the middle of the flimsy rigid inflatable boats (RIBs), and when they collapse due to overcrowding, they fold in and crush them.
“All of your countries will have different stories of the way in which the gangs are exploiting people into sexual exploitation, into slave labour, into crime, the way in which the gangs are using new technology,” she said.
She said they were not just using phones and social media to organise crossings, but also drones to spot border patrols.
“It is governments and not gangs who should be deciding who enters our country,” she said.
Sir Keir also hosted a roundtable discussion joined by border security and asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle, Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt and Home Office, Border Force and National Crime Agency officials.
Image: The PM led a roundtable discussion with UK law enforcement and ministers. Pic: Reuters
Ministers ‘disappointed’ in small boat numbers
Before the summit, Dame Angela told Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast ministers were “disappointed” in the number of small boat crossings in recent months.
She said one reason was more people were being packed into each boat. She also said smuggler gangs have been allowed to grow “very sophisticated” global networks over many years.
Earlier, Ms Cooper announced £30m funding for “high impact operations” by the Border Security Command (BSC) to tackle supply chains, illicit finances and trafficking routes across Europe, the Western Balkans, Asia and Africa.
An additional £3m will be given to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to increase its capacity to prosecute organised international smugglers and to support the BSC to pursue and arrest those responsible for people smuggling operations.
The threat of physical attacks by Iran on people living in the UK has increased “significantly” since 2022, according to a new report by parliament’s intelligence watchdog.
Iran poses a “wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat” to the UK, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee.
It also said Iran’s intelligence services were “willing and able – often through third party agents – to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK”.
Image: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pic: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report said there have been 15 murder or kidnap attempts against British citizens or UK-based individuals since the beginning of 2022 and August 2023.
Sky News has approached the Iranian embassy for a comment.
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Millions of Iranians unite in mourning
The report authors add: “Whilst Iran’s activity appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China, Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated: it is persistent and crucially – unpredictable.”
The committee also says that while the threat is often focused on dissidents and other opponents to the regime, there is also an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.
More on Iran
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The report warns that while Iran has not developed a nuclear weapon, it has taken steps towards that goal.
It found that Iran had been “broadly compliant” with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aimed at limiting its nuclear ambitions.
But since Donald Trump withdrew from that deal in 2018, the report said the nuclear threat had increased and Tehran “had the capability to arm in a relatively short period”.
The UK government is also accused of “fire-fighting” rather than developing a real understanding of Iran.
Image: Iran’s president oversees a parade in Tehran in April showing off the country’s military hardware. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
Image: Missiles are paraded through the capital during the recent National Army Day ceremony. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report says: “The government’s policy on Iran has suffered from a focus on crisis management, driven by concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme, to the exclusion of other issues.
“As one of our expert witnesses told the committee: ‘Strategy is not a word that I think has crossed the lips of policy makers for a while, certainly not in relation to Iran’.”
The committee concluded its evidence-taking in August 2023, the result of two years of work, but the report authors say their conclusions “remain relevant”.
But the report authors questioned whether UK sanctions against individuals would “in practice deliver behavioural change. Or in fact unhelpfully push Iran towards China”.
The committee also said the British government should consider proscribing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), although some argue it would limit the UK’s ability to talk to and influence Iran.
Responding to the report, a UK government spokesperson said: “The government will take action wherever necessary to protect national security, which is a foundation of our plan for change.
“We have already placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme and introduced further sanctions against individuals and entities linked to Iran, bringing the total number of sanctions to 450.”
British security services say Tehran uses criminal proxies to carry out its work in Britain.
In December, two Romanians were charged after a journalist working for a Persian language media organisation in London was stabbed in the leg. In May, three Iranian men appeared in court charged with assisting Iran’s foreign intelligence service and plotting violence against journalists.
Earlier this year, the UK government said it would require the Iranian state to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK, because of what it called increasingly aggressive activity.
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Image: Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’sretail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Image: Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.
And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.
There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.
Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.
Image: Minck, a French search and rescue ship, shadows the boat
The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.
A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.
Image: Sky’s Adam Parsons at the scene
As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.
Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.
Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.
The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.
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The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.
We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.
They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.
In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.