The Government will expand right-to-work checks to cover gig-economy workers by making amendments to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. Businesses that do not carry out the checks could be fined up to £60,000, or face closures, director disqualifications, and up to five years in prison.

The record total of migrants crossing the Channel in the first quarter of 2025 far exceeds previous years.

Some 5,435 arrived in January, February and March in 2024 – at the time, a record for the first quarter of a calendar year, and well above the number in the same three months in 2023 and 2022.

Reform UK says Labour’s migration summit is a stunt designed to hide the fact that the Government has failed to control our borders.

Reform MP Lee Anderson said: “Labour’s failure to control illegal migration is not just an issue of border security—it is a national crisis. As the numbers show, we are not receiving the best and brightest in terms of illegal migrants.

“No country has benefited from this level of unbridled immigration. It has placed a massive strain on our public services, our safety, and the pockets of our hardworking taxpayers.

“Reform UK will freeze all non-essential immigration, deport foreign criminals, and deport anyone who has illegally entered the country.”

Pictures emerge of Keir Starmer holding talks on illegal migration

Sir Keir Starmer led a round table discussion joined by Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle, Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt and Home Office, Border Force and National Crime Agency officials.

He said Monday’s summit was the biggest ever gathering of countries from different areas of smuggling routes there has ever been on the issue.

Sir Keir said “serious problems” require serious solutions and there were “concrete proposals” on the table.

Mr Hewitt added in his six months in post on visits to other countries, the UK is still seen as an attractive country to come to as he praised the Government’s move to close a loophole on right to work checks to crack down on illegal working as “critical”.

With over 40 international partners joining the UK’s call to treat people-smuggling like terrorism, Downing Street says that today’s summit marks the beginning of a new global coalition to take the fight to the criminal gangs at every stage of the smuggling chain.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was happy to be supporting collaboration with the UK on the challenge in a recorded video played at the London summit.

She said Italy’s approach with Albania to process claims offshore was first criticised but governments should not be afraid to imagine and build innovative solutions.

“A model that was criticised at first, but that then has gained increasing consensus, so much so that today, European Union is proposing to set up return hubs in third countries,” she said.

“This means that we were right and that the courage to lead the way has been rewarded.”

The Government claims illegal migrants are being removed faster than ever. It says more than 24,000 individuals with no right to be in the UK since the General Election – the highest returns rate for eight years.

Between 5 July and 22 March 2025 there were 24,103 returns, the highest 9 month period compared to any 9-month period since 2017. Prior to this from Jan – Sept 2017, returns were 25,225.

Of total returns since 5 July 2024:

there were 6,339 enforced returns of people with no legal right to remain in the UK, the Government says.

3,594 were of foreign national offenders (FNOs).

6,781 were asylum related returns.

From 5 July 2024 to 22 March 2025 there have been 46 charter flights for returns to countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

“It is governments and not gangs that should be deciding who enters our country” says Yvette Cooper.

She says “new counter terror powers” will be used to fight people smuggling gangs. But strengthening UK border security means working with other countries.

“No country can do this alone”, she says.

People smugglers give children fake life jackets that will not keep them afloat if the “flimsy” rubber boats they are placed on sink, says Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

We have seen “children crushed to death and yet the boat carries on” as the rubber boats are overcrowded, she says.

Yvette Cooper says “a vast and ruthless criminal industry” of people smuggling is worth “billions of pounds.”

“Organised immigration crime” breaks laws and threatens “cohesion”, she says.

And she says they profit from “a vile trade in human beings”

Recent years have seen a small boat crossing industry “take hold” on our borders.

Speaking to politicians from across the world gathered in London for the illegal migration summit, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says “new scales” of illegal migration are causing “major challenges”.

In a video shown to the migration summit, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says her country and the UK are “uniting our efforts” to stop illegal migration and fight the profits made by people smugglers and traffickers.

The Prime Minister says he wants to work with other countries to smash the gangs and secure UK borders.

The Prime Minister says a new law will mean business owners that fine illegal workers can be fined £60,000, go to prison for five years and have the businesses closed.

Sir Keir Starmer has admitted Britain’s illegal migration crisis is driving down wages.

He said: “We have got to be honest here, for too long the UK has been a soft touch on this.

“Whilst the last government were busy with their Rwanda gimmick, they left the door wide open for illegal working, especially in short term or zero hours roles.

“Whilst most companies do the responsible thing and carry out right to work checks, too many dodgy firms have been exploiting a loophole to skip this process, hiring illegal workers, undercutting honest businesses, driving down the wages of ordinary working people.

“All of this of course fuelling that poisonous narrative of the gangs who promise the dream of a better life to vulnerable people yet deliver a nightmare of squalid conditions and appalling exploitation.

“Today we are changing that because this Government is introducing a tough new law to force all companies to carry out these checks on right to work.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer insists people smugglers only care about making vast profits.

Government insiders believe the crime gangs rake in hundreds of millions every year.

Sir Keir insists the boats are so dangerous people wouldn’t allow their children to climb into a boat, even in shallow waters.

The Prime Minister compared the boats to cars.

They’d be taken off the road in minutes, by the police, he says.

He said the vessels being used to make the trip across the English Channel were “not worthy of the name boat”.

“To me they look like death traps,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer said the UK has deported over 24,000 migrants since Labour came into office.

The Prime Minister claims this would have taken 80 years, under the Rwanda scheme.

He says it is the highest return rate for eight years.

Sir Keir also bragged of the “biggest return flight ever”.

Sir Keir says Border Force will be able to seize migrants’ phones to garner crucial intelligence to destroy the smuggling networks.

He says Labour is “creating an elite Border Force, working with our international partners”.

The Prime Minister said the new powers will allow UK authorities to intervene before smugglers try to launch a boat.

Sir Keir said there have been a series of major arrests in France and Amsterdam, leading to engines and boats being seized.

He adds: “There’s nothing progressive about allowing working age people to come here, instead of supporting them to build their own economies, secure a better future for their own countries and build a safer, more prosperous World.”

Sir Keir told how it was not illegal to facilitate illegal migration to countries outside of the EU.

But Berlin has changed the law, he said.

This will allow German prosecutors to go after smuggling networks storing equipment just hours from the French coast.

PM: “I simply don’t believe that organised immigration crime cannot be tackled.

“So we’ve got to combine our resources, share intelligence and tactics and tackle the problem upstream at every step of the smuggling journey, from North Africa and the Middle East to the high streets of our biggest cities.”

He says: “We’ve got to bring to bear all the powers we have at our disposal, in much the same way that we do against terrorism.”

The Prime Minister said that people smuggling needs to be treated as a global security threat similar to terrorism.

He said that nations have got to “combine our resources, share intelligence and tactics and tackle the problem upstream”.

Addressing the summit in London, the Prime Minister said: “We’ve got to bring to bear all the powers we have at our disposal in much the same way that we do against terrorism.

“Now, before I was a politician, I was the Director of Public Prosecution in England and Wales, and we worked across borders, throughout Europe and beyond Europe to foil numerous plots, saving thousands of lives.

“In the process, we prevented planes from being blown up across the Atlantic and brought the perpetrators to justice. So I believe we should treat organised immigration crime in exactly the same way.”

Sir Keir says he remembers his first trip to Calais, where he saw children as young as five “in freezing temperatures, with almost nothing to keep them warm”.

Sir Keir Starmer begins his speech by referencing previous summits at Lancaster House, and talks on Ukraine’s future.

He links it to the importance of international partnerships tackling global problems.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “The government’s plan to ‘smash the gangs’ already lies in tatters.

“We are about to see 30,000 illegal channel crossings since election reached this week, a 31% increase.

“This year so far has been the worst on record. This is a direct consequence of the government cancelling the Rwanda deterrent before it even started.

“Other countries, including Germany, Italy and the even the European Commission are looking at offshore processing as a deterrent, but Starmer’s Labour government has gone in the opposite direction. He has lost control of our borders as a result.

“Today’s conference will make no difference to that – as the NCA themselves said, law enforcement alone cannot stop illegal immigration.

“You need a removals deterrent.

“And Yvette Cooper admitted yesterday that the government is simply crossing its fingers and praying for bad weather to stop illegal migration across the channel. That is not a plan.”

Border Security Minister Angela Eagle told LBC this morning: “Nobody is happy with the numbers, but I think you have to remember that there are no magic wands and easy switches here.

“You have to do basic operational police work.

“These gangs were allowed to form and take hold for six years. We have been in government for eight months.

“We’re just getting legislation on the statute book so that we can deal with some of the preventative stuff.

“We’re reaching out to colleagues in other jurisdictions so that we can cooperate cross borders.

“We’ve made arrests of people smuggling gang members across Europe.

“We are interdicting some of the supplies of boats, which is why more people per boat is now happening.

“The numbers of boats coming across are very similar, it’s just there are more people on them.

“We’re dealing with our French colleagues. They’re going to set up a new elite police force in the northern beaches. That’s going to happen a bit later this year.”

“We’re imposing sanctions that treat smugglers like terrorists.

“We’ve ramped up raids on illegal working and today we’re setting out plans to close a loophole that allowed businesses to avoid checks on those in short-term or zero-hours roles – so that Britain is no longer a soft touch for illegal working.

“Me reeling off a list of actions isn’t what the British people are looking for. I know that. People want to know we will give them security – in their jobs, in their streets, in the promise of opportunities for their kids. I can promise we will.

“It isn’t gimmicks – or more populism – that will solve this problem. It is practical government. That is the change this Labour Government brings.

“That’s how we will smash the gangs, secure our borders and restore your faith in the ability of mainstream politics to deliver for you.”

Austria, Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Council of Europe, Croatia, Czech Republic, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Kurdish Regional Government, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Estonia, Portugal, Vietnam, UNODC, USA.

Representatives from more than 40 countries are expected today.

Dame Angela Eagle told Sky News that the Government needs “time” to dismantle people smuggling gangs.

Speaking to Sky News, the border security and asylum minister was asked whether she was disappointed in the number of crossings.

She said: “Of course, we’re disappointed. Some of that is about having more people per boat, which is also more dangerous and more reckless.

“But what we’ve got to do – we’ve been in government for eight months – these people smuggling gangs have been allowed to establish themselves across the Channel and be very sophisticated with their global networks for six years. We are going to dismantle them by working with other people cross-jurisdiction, operationally too.”

“But we need time to do that, and we need to have events like this so that we can co-operate together to increase our effectiveness,” she added, pointing to the Government’s summit opening on Monday.

The other big story today is the row over “two-tier justice”.

Judges are being told to consider an offender’s racial, cultural and religious background when deciding whether to impose a custodial or community sentence.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood urged the Sentencing Council to reverse the plans.

But the quango on Friday defended the plans and rejected calls to change the guidelines, meaning they will come in on April 1, setting up a showdown between ministers and judges.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told Times Radio: “I think you do want to have guidelines provided to judges and magistrates so that there is a very high degree of consistency across the country in the way in which sentences are passed down.

“And so it’s right that they provide guidance and that they keep that under continuous review.

“It is also important, however, that there is a degree of ministerial oversight over that.

“So if they stray into policy and political decisions of great importance to the justice system, as has happened in this case, ministers such as the Justice Secretary can intervene.”

Officials last night confirmed a £33million funding boost to secure more prosecutions along the smuggling routes to the French coast.

British prosecutors will be expected to forge closer ties with allies to lock up more migrant smugglers across the continent.

The organised crime gangs are raking in hundreds of millions every year, insiders believe.

Government officials say the Organised Immigration Crime summit will be an opportunity to expand “the follow the money strategy globally”.

Migrants and smugglers use an ancient payment system known as “Hawala”.

This sees a third party pay a ‘handler’ in the migrants’ home country. This money is then held until the migrant arrives safely at their destination.

The smuggler can collect his money from another handler in the country where he is operating. No physical money is ever transferred under this system.

But it effectively means criminals can move their profits across continents almost as quickly as regular bank transfers – without the scrutiny.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will use a two-day organised immigration crime summit to push for more international co-operation on tackling supply routes, criminal finances and online adverts for dangerous journeys.

More than 40 countries are expected to attend, including the US, Vietnam, France and Iraq. Representatives from social media giants X, Meta and TikTok are also expected to attend.

Home Secretary Ms Cooper said the UK’s border security is currently “dependent on the weather”.

Officials believe there have been far more “red days” – when crossings are considered likely because conditions are calmer – than in previous years.

This has allowed smugglers that have “taken a deep hold along the English Channel” to launch more boats packed with dozens of asylum seekers.

More than 6,600 migrants have crossed the Channel this year, up 31% on last year.