Sir Keir Starmer has ‘no doubt’ Rwanda flights will get off ground – but Labour would cancel scheme ‘straight away’

Published

2 years ago

May 10, 2024

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Sir Keir Starmer has said he has no doubt the government will get flights off the ground to Rwanda but Labour would “cancel the scheme straight away” if they win the next general election.

The Labour leader, announcing his party’s policy on illegal immigration in Dover, said the government’s flagship policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda will not work.

“They will get flights off the ground, I don’t doubt that but I also don’t doubt it will not work,” he said.

When asked by Sky News political editor Beth Rigby if that means he would stop any deportation flights to Rwanda on day one of a Labour government, he said: “We will scrap the Rwanda scheme.

“I said that to you when we last met last week, the time before last and you know, that means ending the scheme.

“Absolutely. Flights and all.”

He added: “We will cancel the scheme – of course that means we won’t operate the scheme at all, it’s a gimmick, I won’t flog a dead horse.

“We’re going to get rid of the policy straight away.”

Labour later clarified the party would not stop any flights already planned but would not schedule any further.

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The government’s Rwanda scheme, aimed at deterring asylum seekers arriving in the UK in boats over the Channel, has been stalled by legal arguments but last month became law. However, no flights have yet departed.

The scheme means any asylum seeker entering the UK illegally from a safe country such as France could be sent to Rwanda where their asylum claims would be processed. They would not be allowed to apply to return to the UK.

As Sir Keir announced Labour’s plans to stop small boats coming across to the UK, Sky News witnessed a Border Force boat with about 70 migrants, including at least one child, disembarking in Dover after being picked up in the Channel.

In the speech in Dover alongside new Labour MP Natalie Elphicke, Sir Keir insisted “our asylum system must be rebuilt”.

As part of Labour’s plan, he announced:

• A new Border Security Command, funded by scrapping the Rwanda scheme, with “hundreds of specialist investigators” from the NCA, Border Force, CPS, MI5 and Immigration Enforcement

• Hopes for a new partnership with Europol and new intelligence-sharing networks

• New counter-terrorism powers to allow officers to conduct stop and searches at the border, close bank accounts, trace movements and shut off internet access of people smugglers

• A rules-based asylum system with fast-track reforms, an enforcement unit and a returns agreement with the EU.

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Will Labour’s new plan woo voters?

By Darren McCaffrey, political correspondent

Given the impressive GDP figures released this morning, Labour needed a counter narrative to Conserative crowing.

And so it was to Dover and migration for Sir Keir Starmer to put some flesh on the bones of what a Labour government would do to tackle the small boats crisis.

More money, hundreds of more specialist investigators and the involvement of counter-terrorism are all part of the plan – funded by savings from abandoning the Tories’ Rwanda scheme.

It’s fascinating that Starmer now feels confident enough, not only talking about illegal migration (not traditional Labour territory) but taking the government head-on, on an issue that he feels is up for grabs.

It demonstrates Starmer’s strength inside Labour but also the Conservatives’ perceived weakness on illegal migration.

The Rwanda scheme though, is in principle popular with lots of the public, so if Labour is to abandon it, with this frankly less eye-catching alternative announced today – it leaves one big question – will their plan cut it with voters?

The Labour leader said: “We will restore serious government to our borders, tackle this problem at source and replace the Rwanda policy permanently.”

Turning a blind eye to people smuggling was “not a progressive or compassionate position”, Sir Keir said.

He said “our asylum system must be rebuilt and our borders must be secured”, and accused the Tories of being driven from a serious party of government “onto the rocks of their own delusion” in their pursuit of “gesture politics” over immigration.

“Our rules-based system should align with global rules that protect individual human rights,” Sir Keir added.

“That is in our interests and the right thing to do.”

Sir Keir insisted new Labour MP Ms Elphicke’s defection from the Tories on Wednesday reflected the mood of the country as Rishi Sunak is “clinging on” to power.

Asked if he was concerned about the backlash from within the Labour Party to Ms Elphicke’s defection, he said: “This is a very important and significant crossing of the floor for reasons Natalie set out.

“I think anyone reading the words she set out this morning would be persuaded this is a very significant thing, you’ve got a Tory party that is losing votes, losing MPs, losing councillors, losing mayors across the country.”

Reacting to Sir Keir’s announcement, Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “Labour have no plan to stop the boats.

“Labour have an illegal immigration amnesty, Labour blocked of the deportation of violent sexual offenders and Labour voted over 130 times against tougher legislation to stop the boats. They will create a haven for criminal gangs, not stop them.

“Even Labour MPs are saying Labour can’t be trusted to stop the boats which shows you nothing will change.

“If people can apply for asylum from outside the UK then unlimited claims can be made, many of which will have to be accepted under the law and even then, many of those declined will then get on a small boat anyway.”

Politics

Crypto urges SEC to see the good in blockchain privacy tools

Published

7 hours ago

December 16, 2025

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Crypto urges SEC to see the good in blockchain privacy tools

Crypto industry executives have urged the US Securities and Exchange Commission to shift its thinking on blockchain privacy tools, pitching that there are legitimate applications for them outside of criminal use.

The SEC hosted crypto and finance executives for a discussion and panel on financial surveillance and privacy on Monday, the agency’s sixth crypto-focused roundtable this year, as it seeks to overhaul its approach to crypto.

StarkWare general counsel Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, who participated in a panel discussion, told Cointelegraph after the event that a major takeaway was that there shouldn’t be an assumption that those using and creating privacy tools are “overwhelmed by wrongdoers.”

“Why is the assumption that an individual needs to affirmatively prove that they are compliant or they’re using the tool for good?”

“As opposed to it being the other way around, where the assumption is that this individual is using the tool for good until there is some sort of indication that they’re using it for bad,” she said.

Kirkpatrick Bos added that “of course, wrongdoers were using, or are using those tools, but there needs to be a balance.”

*Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos (left) discussing financial privacy at an SEC roundtable on Monday. Source:* *Paul Brigner*

During the roundtable, Wayne Chang, the founder and CEO of the credential management company SpruceID, said some percentage of users of stablecoins, a crypto tool that is slowly becoming mainstream, will want privacy.

“There are a ton of stablecoins that aren’t onchain yet that would come onchain if there is privacy,” he said. “We’re going to see an increase in demand for privacy-preserving blockchains.”

“My hope is that regulators continue to engage industry, and we can have those discussions on how to keep privacy for folks while also having tools that are useful,” Chang said.

Customer checks are becoming outdated

Kirkpatrick Bos said a discussion on Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures focused on whether current rules are sufficient in the age of artificial intelligence.

“The question arose and was debated on the panel, well, what is necessary for Anti-Money Laundering?” she said. “Now we have AI. It’s made manual, AML and KYC antiquated. How do we solve for that?”

“There was a sense that the current system of AML and KYC is antiquated, it’s problematic, it’s ineffective,” she added. “But there needs to be some sort of check when it’s a centralized entity facilitating flows of money to ensure that they’re not helping wrongdoers.”

Many financial institutions request a picture of a user’s driver’s license for its KYC checks, which Kirkpatrick Bos said was “absurd, because an individual can go on the internet and develop a fake driver’s license in a matter of seconds.”

“So the question is, can cryptography-based tools improve that and make it harder for bad guys to do that? But can they also do that and make it harder for bad guys while preserving an individual’s privacy and not revealing data like an address, where it is not necessary to vet the legality of the funds?” she added.

Some projects have begun to test crypto-based solutions for proving identity while claiming to preserve privacy, such as Sam Altman’s World, which gives users a cryptographic key they can use to prove they’re human.

SEC’s Atkins warns of potential for crypto mass surveillance

SEC chair Paul Atkins had given opening remarks at the roundtable, warning that if “pushed in the wrong direction, crypto could become the most powerful financial surveillance architecture ever invented.”