Starmer’s new border chief warns plan to smash smuggling gangs ‘not enough’

Britain needs to do more than just crack down on smuggling gangs to combat the small boats crisis, Sir Keir Starmer’s new border chief has warned.

Martin Hewitt, who was named in the role on Monday, is understood to have pushed for a deterrent as part of an official strategy for curbing illegal migration to the UK.

While it’s unclear what kind of deterrent Hewitt may want, his calls follow internal National Crime Agency memos from 2023 in which officials concluded stopping the boats would be impossible without one.

The NCA had added that no amount of money nor effort against human traffickers would be enough to stop the crossings entirely.

Despite the NCA memos, the Prime Minister scrapped the Rwanda deterrent on his first day on the job and has said he is “absolutely convinced” that his “smash the gangs” strategy is the way forward.

On Monday, Starmer claimed that cracking down on the gangs and swifter returns processes would act as deterrents in and of themselves.

Speaking to the media from Rome, where he was meeting migration hardliner Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, Starmer talked up how his Government had deported some 3,000 foreign criminals and unsuccessful asylum seekers since the General Election.

But critics have said that processing asylum claims more quickly may even encourage even more prospective migrants to travel to the UK from countries like Afghanistan, Iran or Syria, knowing they will have their asylum applications processed more swiftly – and cannot be sent back home for their own safety.

More to follow…