GB News’ Martin Daubney was left furious by the Labour Government’s latest crackdown.
GB News Martin Daubney issued a furious rant (Image: GB News )
GB News presenter Martin Daubney issued a furious rant as he addressed the government’s latest measures to crack down on illegal immigration. This came after the Home Office revealed that UK border officials will now be able to seize the mobile phones of migrants crossing the English Channel, without arresting them. However, Martin mocked the border force’s new powers as he raged: “Well, that will scare them, won’t it, that will really make them quake in their sandals.”
The host continued: “Surely, this won’t stop people smuggling gangs and more to the point, why on Earth wasn’t this happening all along?” As he introduced Tony Smith, the former director general of the UK Border Force, Martin questioned: “Tony, you can sense my cynicism in this, I cannot believe that people can just waltz into Britain with a phone and have no checks about their person … this is another chocolate teapot of an idea.”
The Labour government was humiliated on GB News (Image: GB News )
The presenter stated: “The idea that taking phones from them is some kind of breakthrough with smash the gangs is absolutely for the birds.”
Tony responded: “I gave evidence to the committee last year on this. It took a year to pass, and it is a symptom of what they’re talking about on their ‘smashing the gangs’ agenda.
“With regard to migrants tuning up on small boats with phones, most of them throw their phones away.
“If they have got phones, we could still seize devices because they were under previous legislation, so I think what this enables us to do is to look on the phones for specific intelligence to identify whether they’re linked to a smuggling gang.”
The former director-general of the UK Border Force revealed that the powers can also be used pre-arrest as he added: “So, if you don’t arrest somebody, for example, in the UK who’s already here who might not be an illegal immigrant but has a phone on them, then you can do that.”
Border Force have been granted more powers (Image: Getty)
The Home Office have said seizures will begin on Monday (January 6) at the Manston migrant processing centre in Kent, with technology on site ready to download intelligence from devices.
The National Crime Agency stated that the collected information could expedite investigations into smuggling gangs.
Border security minister Alex Norris said: “We promised to restore order and control to our borders, which means taking on the people smuggling networks behind this deadly trade.
“That is exactly why we are implementing robust new laws with powerful offences to intercept, disrupt and dismantle these vile gangs faster than ever before and cut off their supply chains.”
The new law also introduces offences that could leave perpetrators facing up to 14 years in jail for storing or supplying boat engines to bring migrants to the UK.
