Keir Starmer faces new small boats crisis as people smuggling prosecutions fall to new low
The Prime Minister won the election promising to ‘smash the gangs’, but new stats show Labour is failing miserably.
People smuggling convictions have fallen to a record low (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer has been warned that migrant smuggling gangs “are laughing at him” as new stats reveal prosecutions have fallen to a new low. Research shows that prosecutions of individuals facilitating small boat crossings fell a whopping 60% during Labour’s first year in power, despite Sir Keir’s repeated pledge to “smash the gangs”.
Between July 2024 and June 2024, just 153 people were prosecuted for aiding illegal entry into Britain, a huge fall from the record high seen under Robert Jenrick’s tenure as immigration minister. Mr Jenrick’s term in office saw 471 people smugglers prosecuted in 2023, and 424 in 2024. In addition, just 446 of the 43,309 illegal migrants who came to Britain during Labour’s first 12 months were charged with immigration offences, representing less than 1% of total crossings.
Robert Jenrick said people smugglers are laughing at Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
The revelation is a massive blow to the Prime Minister, whose sold focus for the past 2 years has been promising to take on the people smuggling gangs in order to stop small boat crossings.
During the same time, illegal immigration has risen by 50% under Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, while illegal immigration into Europe has fallen by 20% during the same time, according to Frontex figures.
Mr Jenrick, the shadow Justice Secretary, said: “Keir Starmer boasted he would smash the gangs, but the gangs are laughing at him. They’ve never had it easier and crossings are up 50 per cent as a result. We’re now heading towards being the illegal immigration capital of Europe.
“It’s clear Starmer is incapable of stopping the boats and his backbenchers don’t want him to. The country cannot go on like this – the situation in the Channel is a national security emergency.
“Those that arrive illegally from the safety of France must be swiftly deported so the message is clear: if you break into Britain, you will not get a life here.”
Keir Starmer is failing to stop boat crossings despite new agreements with Europe (Image: Getty)
The top Tory has also warned that Labour’s new sentencing council guidelines, unveiled by Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, will significantly water down sentences for immigration offences.
New reforms will mean that criminals will be able to get their prison sentences cut by 40% if they plead guilty, up from one third under the current system.
When paired with other Labour reforms allowing criminals to serve just one-third of their sentence before being released, someone sentenced to 10 years in prison could be let free after just two years.
The Tories warn that these reforms mean thousands of illegal migrants, if convicted, would not receive a prison sentence of more than 12 months, making them ineligible for deportation under current rules.
The official opposition’s research suggests Ms Mahmood’s sentencing reforms will mean hundreds of immigration offenders each year will now avoid prison and deportation.
Sir Keir is introducing new anti-terrorism style laws to attempt an end to people smuggling, including the freezing of bank accounts.
He insists his new law introduces sanctions “very similar to the powers we have used against terrorists, which allows us to seize their assets, to stop them travelling, and to put them out of business.
“The people running this trade are only interested in the amount of money that they can make, and if you can break that model, you can reduce that organised crime.”
The Government has deported 24,000 people since coming to power, however just 6,339 of these were “enforced returns”, meaning they were deported involuntarily.
A Labour spokesman said: “Robert Jenrick can reinvent himself as many times as he likes, but he cannot rewrite history. With Labour in office, more people were charged with assisting unlawful immigration in our first year in government than in the entire time that Jenrick was in charge of the Immigration System. Indeed, we charged more people with that offence in our first three months than he managed in his last six.
“But much more important than Robert Jenrick’s failures in the past are the ones he is making now, and we don’t just mean screwing up this attempted attack story against Labour. If he was truly serious about prosecuting dangerous people smugglers, he would not have voted against our new law to criminalise people who endanger the lives of others in the Channel, and would instead be supporting us to take that action against those who cause women and children to suffocate and drown on overcrowded small boats.”
