Chancellor Rishi Sunak is staking his political reputation on a plan to “stop the ships” and press ahead with controversial deportation plans despite opposition from rights groups and judicial decisions.
Labor is widely expected to win the next general election later this year after 14 years in opposition, but pressure is mounting to ask what it will do if voted into power.
Migration has become an increasingly central political issue since Britain left the European Union in 2020, largely on a promise to “take back control” of its borders.
Natalie Elphike, Conservative MP for Dover, where most of the small boats are landed, switched to Labor this week, saying the government's policies were not working.
In a speech in the city, Labor leader Keir Starmer criticized Mr Sunak's “stop the boats” policy, calling it an ineffective “gimmick” that was neither a deterrent nor cost-effective.
More than 8,800 people have already crossed the Channel from northern France this year, but around 52,000 remain trapped in government temporary accommodation due to a backlog in asylum applications, he said.
Mr Starmer said the Rwanda deportation scheme, which Mr Sunak wants to launch in July, failed to address this issue.
“Only a few hundred people, less than 1 per cent, cross the ocean in small boats at a cost of £600 million each year,” he said, calling this a “gesture” to satisfy the anti-immigrant right. It was called “politics.”
“We will permanently replace our Rwanda policy,” he said, pledging a new approach to protecting Britain's borders by tackling the problem “upstream” to destroy people-smuggling rings behind the border.
～“Elite” new force～
He added that central to the policy would be a new “elite” border force made up of immigration and law enforcement experts and a domestic intelligence agency, MI5.
Funds ring-fenced for the Rwanda program will be funneled back into new forces.
Mr Starmer, who oversaw several high-profile terrorism and drug smuggling cases during his time as chief prosecutor for England and Wales, said smugglers were “no different from terrorists”.
He argued for stronger pre-emptive powers to deal with them under counter-terrorism laws, as well as closer co-operation with Britain's European neighbors, including joint investigations and operations.
In a message to gangsters, he said: “This coast will be hostile territory for you…We will find you, we will stop you and we will protect your victims…We will protect Britain's borders. Deaf,” he said.
With Brexit, the UK lost the ability to return asylum seekers to EU member states.
Asked whether Labor was considering returning to the system, Mr Starmer admitted that the Dublin Agreement needed to be replaced “in some way so that we get something in return”.
But it added that “that does not mean joining the EU plan” as it is still possible to return asylum seekers to their country of origin.
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