Keir Starmer told smuggling gangs are ‘laughing at you’ after 17,000 migrants enter UK! B
Border Security Command funding will double to £150m to “smash the gangs”, the Government has announced.
Robert Jenrick, the new shadow justice secretary, mocked Sir Keir over his latest crackdown on migrant small boat Channel crossings as he claimed “the people smugglers are laughing at you”.
The Prime Minister insisted his £150million package of measures designed to stop the boats as he repeated his pledge to treat the smuggling gangs the same as terrorists.
But Mr Jenrick, who was appointed to Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet yesterday, said Labour’s decision to scrap the Tories’ Rwanda deportation plan meant it was now “open season” for the crossings.
He said: “The people smugglers are laughing at you.
“You scrapped, not strengthened, the Rwanda plan.
“And 17,000 illegal migrants have crossed on small boats since you entered No10.
“It’s open season now.”
Migration Watch UK chairman Alp Mehmet warned processing claims more quickly “does nothing of the sort” and simply “passes the burden onto local authorities and adds strength to the already-powerful magnet” pulling asylum seekers to the UK.
He said: “It’s an open invitation for anyone claiming to be from these countries to make their way here,” he said. “Starmer’s speech today… effectively gives up on border control. Full of platitudinous waffle.
“He called on the world ‘to wake up to the challenge of people smuggling’ – if only he would wake up from his pipe-dream of smashing the gangs.”
