STEPHEN GLOVER: Starmer is signing his political death warrant with his futile ‘smash the gangs’ policy. Deterrence is the only solution

Why are Sir Keir Starmer and Labour unable to reduce the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats?

Last week, as Vice-President J.D. Vance accused Europe of ‘engaging in civilisational suicide’, our Government established a bleak record. More than 25,000 migrants have come across the Channel so far this year, a 50 per cent increase on 2024. It seems certain that 2025 will be the worst year ever.

Starmer vowed to stop the boats, though of course has been completely ineffectual. The Government has introduced a multitude of measures, all to no effect. In July last year, a few weeks after the election, the PM promised in a newspaper article that he would ‘smash the vile criminal gangs’ organising the small boats.

With breathtaking arrogance he wrote: ‘As leader of the Crown Prosecution Service I worked on operations that took down terrorist networks across Europe. I will never accept the same approach cannot be applied to the people smugglers.’ He used similar language many times.

A year has passed, and ‘the same approach’ manifestly hasn’t worked. There are daily protests outside hotels housing migrants (average nightly bill £119, admittedly down from £162 in March 2023) which could spiral into something nasty.

Following last month’s disturbances near a hotel in Epping housing migrants, anti-racism activists clashed with police and anti-migrant protesters on Saturday in Islington, north London, outside a hotel where asylum seekers are being accommodated.

Over the weekend, anti-immigrant protests also took place outside a hotel in Newcastle. The group was met by demonstrators carrying placards proclaiming ‘refugees welcome’. Some of them reportedly waved Palestinian flags.

None of us can know whether these so far relatively isolated protests will become more widespread, as happened last August in the wake of the Southport attack. But the mood of the country does seem febrile.

All this illuminates the enormity of Starmer’s failure over the small boats. So I repeat my question. Why, despite his undertaking to smash the gangs and his evident realisation that unless he fulfils his promise he and Labour are political toast, have things only got worse?

The Government should be turning its attention to the people who enable the Channel crossings and make the whole thing possible, writes Stephen Glover

It’s simple. Sir Keir has been chasing the wrong people.

Yes, the leaders of the gangs are ruthless, mercenary, heartless criminals who don’t give a fig for the lives of the migrants whom they load into often defective boats. At least 18 people have died so far this year.

But smashing the gangs is an operational impossibility. Arrest one leader and another will emerge. The trade is so lucrative. All the new intelligence of which Starmer boasts plus the extra boats and the enhanced powers of Border Security Command are likely to be of marginal benefit.

The Government’s latest feeble policy is to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats. Perpetrators – if caught – could be sentenced for up to five years in prison and receive a hefty fine. How gang leaders must be quaking.

Instead of trying and failing to smash the gangs, the Government should be turning its attention to the people who enable the Channel crossings and make the whole thing possible. I mean the migrants themselves.

In Labour’s misguided conception, the gang leaders are vile but the migrants are innocent victims. The first proposition is true, the second is false. Those crossing the Channel are trying to break into this country without having been invited.

Some are the victims of persecution but most are simply in search of a better life. The
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