£100m border security boost – as govt vows ‘major crackdown’ on people smuggling gangs

Published

4 months ago

August 4, 2025

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The government has vowed to push for a “major new crackdown” on people smuggling gangs with a £100m cash boost for border security.

The investment will support the pilot of the new “one in, one out” returns agreement between the UK and France, and other efforts to crack down on small boat crossings.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said this new funding will “strengthen” the government’s “serious and comprehensive plan” to dismantle the business model of criminal gangs smuggling migrants across the Channel.

But the Conservatives have claimed the cash injection will make “no real difference”, with shadow home secretary Chris Philp branding the move a Labour “gimmick” and a “desperate grab for headlines”.

The funding will pay for up to 300 new National Crime Agency (NCA) officials, “state-of-the art” detection technology and new equipment to “smash the networks putting lives at risk in the Channel”, ministers say.

It will also allow the Border Security Command, the NCA, the police and other law enforcement agency partners to “strengthen investigations targeting smuggling kingpins and disrupt their operations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and beyond”.

The new investment comes as official figures show more than 25,000 people have arrived on small boats so far in 2025 – a record for this point in the year.

Ms Cooper said: “In the last 12 months, we have set the foundations for this new and much stronger law enforcement approach – establishing the new Border Security Command, strengthening the National Crime Agency and UK police operations, increasing Immigration Enforcement, introducing new counter terror style powers in our Border Security Bill, and establishing cooperation agreements with Europol and other countries.

“Now this additional funding will strengthen every aspect of our plan, and will turbo-charge the ability of our law enforcement agencies to track the gangs and bring them down, working with our partners overseas, and using state-of-the-art technology and equipment.

“Alongside our new agreements with France, this will help us drive forward our Plan for Change commitments to protect the UK’s border security and restore order to our immigration system.”

The £100m investment will also support new powers to be introduced when the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill becomes law, the Home Office said.

This includes the introduction of a UK-wide offence to criminalise the creation and publication of online material that promotes a breach of immigration law, such as the advertisement of small boat crossings on social media.

Research suggests about 80% of migrants arriving to the UK by small boat used internet platforms during their journey – including to contact agents linked to smuggling gangs.

While it is already illegal to assist illegal immigration, ministers hope the creation of a new offence will give police more powers and disrupt business models.

Mr Philp accused the Labour government of having “no serious plan, just excuses, while ruthless criminal gangs flood our borders with illegal immigrants”.

He said: “The British public deserves real action, not empty slogans and tinkering at the edges.”

Politics

Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Published

8 hours ago

December 1, 2025

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Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi view Kevin Hassett, US President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council director, as the favorite to replace Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair.

The odds of Hassett filling the seat have spiked to 66% on Polymarket and 74% on Kalshi at the time of writing. Hassett is widely viewed as crypto‑friendly thanks to his past role on Coinbase’s advisory council, a disclosed seven‑figure stake in the exchange and his leadership of the White House digital asset working group.

Founder and CEO of Wyoming-based Custodia Bank, and a prominent advocate for crypto-friendly regulations, Caitlin Long, commented on X:

“If this comes true & Hassett does become Fed chairman, anti-#crypto people at the Fed who still hold positions of power will finally be out (well, most of them anyway). BIG changes will be coming to the Fed.”

Kevin Hassett’s crypto credentials

Hassett is a long-time Republican policy economist who returned to Washington as Trump’s top economic adviser and has now emerged as the market-implied frontrunner to lead the Fed.

His financial disclosure reveals at least a seven‑figure Coinbase stake and compensation for serving on the exchange’s Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council, placing him unusually close to the crypto industry for a potential Fed chair.

Still, crypto has been burned before by reading too much into “crypto‑literate” resumes. Gary Gensler arrived at the Securities and Exchange Commission with MIT blockchain courses under his belt, but went on to preside over a wave of high‑profile enforcement actions, some of which critics branded as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

A Hassett-led Fed might be more open to experimentation and less reflexively hostile to bank‑crypto activity. Still, the institution’s mandate on financial stability means markets should not assume a one‑way bet on deregulation.

Supervision pushback inside the Fed

The Hassett odds have jumped just as the Fed’s own approach to bank supervision has received pushback from veterans like Fed Governor Michael Barr, who earned his reputation as one of Operation Chokepoint 2.0’s key architects.

According to Caitlin Long, while he Barr “was Vice Chairman of Supervision & Regulation he did Warren’s bidding,” and he “has made it clear he will oppose changes made by Trump & his appointees.”

On Nov. 18, the Fed released new Supervisory Operating Principles that shift examiners toward a “risk‑first” framework, directing staff to focus on material safety‑and‑soundness risks rather than procedural or documentation issues.

In a speech the same day, Barr warned that narrowing oversight, weakening ratings frameworks and making it harder to issue enforcement actions or matters requiring attention could leave supervisors slower to act on emerging risks, arguing that gutting those tools may repeat pre‑crisis mistakes.

Days later, in Consumer Affairs Letter 25‑1, the Fed clarified that the new Supervisory Operating Principles do not apply to its Consumer Affairs supervision program (an area under Barr’s committee as a governor).

If prediction markets are right and a crypto‑friendly Hassett inherits this landscape, his Fed would not be writing on a blank slate but stepping into an institution already mid‑pivot on how hard (and where) it leans on banks.