Starmer claims he was ‘shocked’ by lack of coordination between police, Border Force and intelligence agencies
In his speech at the Organised Immigration Crime summit, Keir Starmer said that under the last government there was not enough coordination between the police, Border Force and the intelligence services. He said:
We inherited this total fragmentation between our policing, our Border Force and our intelligence agencies.
A fragmentation that made it crystal clear, when I looked at it, that there were gaps in our defence, an open invitation at our borders for the people smugglers to crack on.
To be honest, it should have been fixed years ago.
In his Daily Mail article, Starmer was even blunter.
We inherited the most extraordinary disconnect between policing, our Border Force and our intelligence agencies.
I was shocked. That’s why we’ve created our new £150 million Border Security Command, together with new powers and new criminal offences.
Key events
Home Office ‘very open-minded’ about whether offshore ‘return hubs’ might be good idea, minister says
Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, addressed the Organised Immigration Crime summit in a recorded video, and said she was happy to be supporting collaboration with the UK on the issue.
As PA Media reports, 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. Meloni said:
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.
This means that we were right and that the courage to lead the way has been rewarded.
In an interview on Times Radio this morning, asked if the government was considering using offshore “return hubs”, Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, said:
We’re not ruling anything out if it works, so we’re looking at a range of things.
We’re also obviously looking to see what the European Commission is doing in Europe, we’re looking to see whether return hubs might be a good idea.
But at the moment, we’re not in a position to make any kind of announcements on that, but we are very open-minded to see what works.
In his speech at the summit, and also in his Daily Mail article, Keir Starmer used immigration policy to make a wider point about his approach to politics.
The last government’s Rwanda policy was a “gimmick”, he claimed. His approach was different, he said. Writing in the Mail, he explained:
I accept my approach is not glamorous but it’s how I do business: sleeves rolled up, getting the details right, doing the hard graft.
This plan is drawn on what I know works from my years of experience as our country’s chief prosecutor: that international co-operation is the foundation of securing Britain’s borders …
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.
Kemi Badenoch also frequently describes politics in the same terms (as a split between gimmicks/presentation, and detail/planning/seriousness etc), and like Starmer she describes herself in the latter camp – but she and Starmer don’t agree on what counts as a gimmick.
Starmer claims he was ‘shocked’ by lack of coordination between police, Border Force and intelligence agencies
In his speech at the Organised Immigration Crime summit, Keir Starmer said that under the last government there was not enough coordination between the police, Border Force and the intelligence services. He said:
We inherited this total fragmentation between our policing, our Border Force and our intelligence agencies.
A fragmentation that made it crystal clear, when I looked at it, that there were gaps in our defence, an open invitation at our borders for the people smugglers to crack on.
To be honest, it should have been fixed years ago.
In his Daily Mail article, Starmer was even blunter.
We inherited the most extraordinary disconnect between policing, our Border Force and our intelligence agencies.
I was shocked. That’s why we’ve created our new £150 million Border Security Command, together with new powers and new criminal offences.
Simon Jones from BBC South East, who covers the small boat issue extensively, says on social media that, although Keir Starmer linked the latest removal numbers to potential Rwanda deportation numbers (see 9.26am), the comparision is not exact.
Labour says it’s returned 24,000 people who had no right to be here since it came to power – which it says would have taken the Rwanda scheme 80 years to achieve. (Note: Rwanda was not designed for the deportation of foreign-national offenders).
Enforced returns up 21% since general election, No 10 says, due to more staff being allocated for this
Downing Street has sent out more details of the enforced returns numbers quoted by Keir Starmer in his speech to the Organised Immigration Crime summit. (See 9.26am.)
It says the more than 24,000 migrants made to leave the country since July 2024 meant the government has achieved the highest rate of returns in eight years. It says:
The continued rise in removals includes a 21% increase in enforced returns and a 16% increase in foreign national offenders being removed from the UK since July 5, including the 4 biggest returns charter flights in the UK’s history, with a total of more than 850 people on board.
The massive surge in removals followed the government’s immediate action to redeploy staff across the Home Office to work on policies that deliver results …
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
-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
The full Home Office figures are here.
Starmer says the vessels used by people smugglers do not even deserve the name “boat”. They are so flimsy they are “not worthy of the name”. They are only produced for one purpose. He says law enforcement use to ignore this. But he says he has changed that, and now boats and engines are being seized, “driving up the costs for the smugglers”.
He says checks are also being increased to stop employers hiring illegal migrants.
None of these strategies is “a silver bullet”, he says.
But he says he does not want “gimmicks”. Instead this is “sleeves-rolled-up, practical government”, he says.
Starmer says 24,000 migrants have been removed from UK since Labour took office
Starmer says his government scrapped the Rwanda scheme. The last government had spent £700m on it, but just four volunteers had gone to Rwanda.
Even if the scheme had started working properly, only about 300 people a year would have gone to Rwanda.
He says, since Labour took office, more than 24,000 people with no right to be in the UK have been returned.
It would have taken the Rwanda scheme 80 years to reach that number, he claims.
He says this is the highest return rate for eight years, and it included four of the biggest return flights ever.
Starmer says, from his work as director of public prosecutions, he knows the importance of countries working together to tackle international crime.
And he says changes are already happening.
Take our work with France as a good example.
Now, previously their maritime doctrine prevented French law enforcement from responding to small boats in shallow waters. But now we’re working with them to change that.
And, under German law, it was not illegal to facilitate people smuggling to a country outside the EU. Now that is being changed too, so “Germany will be able to prosecute the criminal networks facilitating this vile trade”.
Starmer says, from the moment he took office, he said he would convene this meeting.
He recalls visiting a camp for asylum seekers outside Calais in 2016, when he had just been elected as an MP.
He recalls the mess, the freezing temperatures, and children there as young as five and seven – the age of his own children at the time.
That sort of misery and desperation remains, and “there’s nothing progressive or compassionate about turning a blind eye to it”, he says.
Starmer starts by saying Lancaster House, the venue for the conference, was where he hosted the recent international meeting of a “coalition of the willing” to discuss support for Ukraine.
He says countries have to work together to help Ukraine.
And the same is try of illegal immigration; the issue can only be tackled by countries cooperating, he says.
And he says people are right to be angry about this problem (echoing the point he made in his Daily Mail article – see 8.53am.)
Comments on the blog will open at 10am.
Starmer speaks at opening of Organised Immigration Crime summit
Keir Starmer is about to speak at the opening of the Organised Immigration Crime (OIC) summit.
There is a live feed at the top of the blog.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has been welcoming the representatives from 40 countries attending today’s Organised Immigration Crime (OIC) summit in London. Here she is greeting one of the attendees, Lithuania’s interior minister, Vladislav Kondratovic.
Starmer says 24,000 migrants have been removed from UK since Labour took office
Good morning. Keir Starmer is opening a big international summit in London this morning which shows, according to Downing Street, that Britian is “spearheading the toughest ever international crackdown on organised immigration crime”. Here is the news release from No 10 and here is Kiran Stacey’s overnight preview story.
To coincide with the event, Starmer has written an article for the Daily Mail summing up his approach to illegal immigration. He starts by saying people are right to be angry about the problem.
I know many of you are angry about illegal migration. You’re right to be. British people are compassionate and fair-minded.
But we all pay the price for insecure borders – from the cost of accommodating migrants to the strain on our public services. It is a basic question of fairness.
And don’t think for one moment that it’s a good outcome for illegal migrants either. So many of these desperate people are the victims of appalling exploitation.
So, believe me: I get it. Which is why at the heart of our promise of change, is a promise to restore your security.
I will post more from the article, and from the summit, shortly.
While Starmer may be focused on illegal immigration this morning, his main concern this week will relate to what President Trump will do on Wednesday, when he is set to announce sweeping global tariffs. These are likely to include Britain and, even if they don’t, they are almost certain to send shockwaves through the world economy that will have more impact on the UK than anything in the spring statement last week. Starmer is still looking for a carve-out, and we have the latest on that here.
And today we should also learn more about the plans to pass emergency legislation this will allowing the government to cancel the Sentencing Council guidelines saying judges should normally get pre-sentence reports before they sentence people from ethnic, cultural or faith minorities. The government agrees with Tory claims that this amounts to two-tier justice.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Keir Starmer speaks at the opening of the international Organised Immigration Crime (OIC) summit. Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is also speaking.
10am: Ed Davey launches the Liberal Democrats’ local elections campaign.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Cooper takes questions in the Commons.
And at some point today Starmer will host a roundtable in Downing Street, attended by some of the producers of the Adolescence Netflix drama, to discuss misogyny and the radicalistion of boys online.
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