For far too long, leaders have failed to deal with illegal migration.

Some have shied away from it, arguing that it is not compassionate to confront the problem. But I say there’s nothing caring about turning a blind eye as criminal gangs send men, women and children to their deaths in our waters.

Others, like the last government, have talked loudly but delivered nothing. All they did was offer useless, expensive gimmicks, like the Rwanda scheme. Or threatened to tear up fundamental international obligations that leaders like Winston Churchill helped to create.

It adds up to year after year of failure. The numbers tell the story. Small boat arrivals were 18% higher in the first half of this year compared to 2023.

In the face of this inheritance, it’s time for change. That’s what the British public voted for on July 4, and that’s what I’m determined to deliver. We will stop at nothing to smash the vile people smuggling gangs.

That starts with changing how we look at this issue. We need to see this crime for what it is – a global security threat similar to that posed by terrorism. And therefore we need a response on the same scale.

When I was the Director of Public Prosecutions it was my mission to go after terrorist gangs. We worked across borders to ensure the safety of citizens, in Europe and around the world. We used every means at our disposal to hunt the terrorists down and bring them to justice. And we delivered results.

So now we’re going to take that tried and tested counter-terrorism approach and apply it to the smuggling gangs. And I will make it my personal mission to go after them.

That’s why we have set up our new Border Security Command. It is coordinating the work of the police, the border force and our intelligence agencies – ending the fragmentation which has hampered efforts for so long. We’re also recruiting hundreds of specialist investigators, bringing together the best of the best in an elite border force.

We’re increasing our coordination with our international partners to share intelligence and tactics. The criminals work across borders – and so we must work across borders too. We must break up their networks. And deepen our cooperation with other governments and law enforcement agencies.

We already know so much about how the gangs operate and what it takes to disrupt and destroy their networks. Now we must work together to apply that knowledge across Europe and beyond.

And because we understand how these gangs work, we can invest in new capabilities and new powers to smash them. That’s why today I’m announcing new funding for our Border Security Command, to provide additional capabilities including new state of the surveillance equipment.

We will also change the law, to provide enhanced powers to go after these gangs. In the fight against terror, we have the powers to trace suspects’ movements using information from the intelligence services. We can shut down their bank accounts, cut off their internet access and seize their phones. We can arrest them for making preparations to act, before an attack has taken place. We don’t wait for them to act – we try to stop them before they do. We need to stop people smuggling gangs before they act too.

This is how we will turn the tables on the gangs. Stronger borders. Better coordination efforts at home and abroad. Better tools. And tougher laws. We will be relentless in this effort.

That is my pledge to the British people. That is the message I’ll be taking to global law enforcement officers at the Interpol meeting in Glasgow today. And that is the message I’ll be taking to the European Political Community meeting in Hungary on Thursday – challenging other leaders to match this ambition.

After years of failure, it’s time to turn the page and show that we can deliver real results. It’s time to treat these vile gangs like the criminals they are and go after them with every means at our disposal. I am determined that is what we’ll do. Express readers expect and deserve nothing less.